The Fight for Essential Worker Pay Continues

Our Local 1000 Bargaining Team continues to press the State for a more realistic and respectful offer of Essential Worker Pay (EWP).

No agreement has been signed, and the State hasn’t budged beyond their one-time $1500 offer to a very limited group of people who worked in defined health care settings during the pandemic. As such, this offer fails to address the many Local 1000-represented workers who kept California running through the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the criteria the State has been using to define “essential” was “… the [health care] employee was in-person providing services onsite more than 50% of the time during the pandemic.”

All across the state, at EDD, DMV, and in scores of other agencies and workplaces, our members kept the revenue coming in—creating the biggest budget surplus in California history—in truly dangerous public-facing working conditions that continue as this pandemic persists.

The State must now acknowledge the vital role of essential workers and do more than provide “thank yous” for the services we provided. They must show us the respect we deserve in their EWP proposal by acknowledging we’re ALL essential workers.   

Our Local 1000 team includes the nine Bargaining Unit Chairs, all three Vice Presidents, the Board Chair, and staff from the Contract Department. The next scheduled bargaining session for Essential Worker Pay is August 31, 2022.