Federal Judge Blocks California In-Home Service Cuts

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/publications/27195.cfm

October 27, 2009

UDW Homecare Providers Union (UDW/AFSCME) and its partners in a class-action lawsuit have won a key victory in their battle to prevent as many as 130,000 low-income seniors and the disabled from losing critical in-home care services.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland issued a preliminary injunction stopping the state from changing rules in November that would have caused 40,000 people to lose in-home services, such as meal preparation and housekeeping. Services for another 90,000 would have been significantly reduced.

In her order, the judge concluded the plaintiffs – UDW/AFSCME, three Service Employees International Union (SEIU) locals and four public interest law firms – are likely to prove at trial that the state used inadequate standards to determine whose services would be cut. Also, she said there are constitutional problems with a written notice the state intended to send to people now receiving in-home services.


NO CUTS! – Members of United Domestic Workers (UDW/AFSCME) rally outside the Federal Courthouse in Oakland before the Oct. 19 hearing.

Photo Credit: Bobby Benoit

The judge ordered the parties to confer on drafting a new letter explaining that no services would be cut Nov. 1, although some cuts could happen in the future.

“The war to prevent these outrageous cuts has just begun,” said Doug Moore, UDW/AFSCME’s executive director and an AFSCME International vice president. “The governor and his enablers in the state Legislature will continue to throw the state’s most vulnerable citizens under the bus unless and until the people of California, through the courts and at the ballot box, say ‘Enough.’ Judge Wilken’s ruling is an important first step in that direction.”

Read more about the judge’s ruling in The Los Angeles Times and The Oakland Tribune. Learn more here.

[CountAllVotes]

1. UNION YES!!!

:dem: :kick: recommend! :D

[jemsan]

2. YES!!!!

[Nikki Stone1]

3. But the education cuts continue.....

....

[usregimechange]

4. Clinton appointee

Nominated by William J. Clinton on October 7, 1993