Unit 20: Medical and Social Services Specialists

Overview

Unit 20
Medical & Social Services Specialists

The purpose of Bargaining Unit 20 is to represent the LVNs, CNAs, Teaching Assistants, Dental Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians, Laboratory Technologists, Physical Therapists, Counselors, and many other medical and social service classifications working in prisons, veteran’s homes, developmental centers, state hospitals, special schools, and other departments for the State of California so they operate under a fair and legal contract, and are part of a strong member led union.

By educating, organizing and mobilizing members of Bargaining Unit 20 in the workplace, the political arena and within the union itself, we strive to improve the living standard and rights of members, their families and other working people. Through these efforts we will accomplish economic and social justice for ourselves and others.

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CCHCS RDA Voluntary Transfer Process

On March 17, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 reached an agreement with CCHCS regarding the voluntary transfer process (VTP) for impacted institutions that have an overage of Dental Assistants.

The agreement reached does not provide any financial help for either relocation expenses or time off work to locate and secure any housing or relocation needs.

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BU 20 Board of Nursing Fee Increase
Update

The Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians is proposing an amendment to Title 16, Division 25, Chapters 1 and 2 of the California Code of Regulations that would increase fees overall. The attached announcement of this amendment provides more detail as to the amount and intention of these increases.

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BARGAINING UNIT 20 ANNOUNCES CREATION OF THE DENTAL POST AND BID TEAM

BU 20 has created a new CDCR/CCHCS Dental Department Post and Bid Team (BU20PAB) to assist with the upcoming Post and Bid process. 

Although the actual process will not begin until April, 2022, now is the time to prepare. RDAs should start requesting that their seniority scores be tallied and are ready to go as that task can take some time.

The BU20PAB Team consists of:

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CalVet Vacation Scheduling Policy

Our Union requested to meet and discuss with the Department of Veteran Affairs (CalVet) to establish written home-wide vacation scheduling procedures for Bargaining Unit 17 and Bargaining Unit 20, per the MOU sections 8.23.20 and 8.26.17. Leadership from each Bargaining Unit, along with Job Stewards from a handful of CalVet Homes, met over several months with CalVet management to establish an annual vacation bidding policy to be implemented at all eight Homes. 

The vacation scheduling policy sets the parameters for annual vacation bidding by classification.

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Supervisor Duties Dumped on HFENs

Health Facilities Evaluator Nurses (HFENs) have been working non-stop to ensure that health facilities follow State and Federal laws to protect the public.  This has been an especially hard task given that the pandemic has made health facilities an area of great concern.  

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Department of State Hospitals (DSH)
Meet & Confer update

On Wednesday, June 23, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to meet and discuss over the status and future of Health and Safety Committees at all five facilities, per Section 10.2 of the MOU. At this meeting, member leaders represented all the DSH facilities, except for Atascadero. Positive steps were taken and will continue in order to ensure success for Health and Safety Committees at each facility to appropriately address concerns collaboratively with management and all staff unions.

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Health Facilities Evaluator Nurses
Update from May 17, 2021

Thank you for all your emails and feedback. Please continue sending your questions, comments, and feedback to unit17@seiu1000.org  

We read each email and try to respond accordingly in our updates.

On May 14, 2021, we met with John Tong (Labor Relations Specialist, CDPH) and Susan Espinoza (Deputy Director of Human Resources, CDPH) to discuss outstanding Health Facility Evaluator Nurse issues.

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Department of State Hospitals (DSH)
Meet & Confer update

On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, SEIU Local 1000 met with the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to meet and confer over DSH’s application for a permanent exemption to the California Standards for Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare, which mandates guidelines for reporting to the Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) regarding workplace violence incidences.

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CDCR CCHCS Entrance Screening Process
Update

On February 4, 2021, our Union met with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to meet and confer over the implementation of the institutional entrance screening policy at each institution throughout the state.

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CCHCS Employee Health Teams (EHTs)
On January 29, 2021

Our Union met with California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to continue discussing the formation and implementation of an Employee Health Team (EHT) at each institution throughout the state.

Some of the major details from the Meet-and-Confer include:

CCHCS was asked to explain the overall, general status of the Employee Health program and any other relevant information, and they responded with the following updates:

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(CCHCS) Employee Health Team (EHT)
Update from October 13, 2020

On October 13, 2020, our Union met with California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) to continue discussing the formation and implementation of an Employee Health Team (EHT) at each institution throughout the state.

Some of the major details from the meet and confer include: