SEIU Local 535

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Keep the heart in Human Services!

Governor Schwarzenegger wants to give 17,000 county eligibility jobs to a private corporation that won’t even pick up the phone!

Fight back. Join other SEIU members in fighting this proposal.

“We want to feed the private sector and we want to starve the public sector.” – Gov. Schwarzenegger, as told to The Sacramento Bee, Jan. 19, 2005

As workers on the frontlines of human services, no one knows how to connect our clients with the services they so desperately need better than we do. But, what if we were gone? Who would look out for the children, mothers and seniors that we help care for each and every working day?

Governor Schwarzenegger is about to launch a pilot program* that would take county eligibility workers out of the picture completely.

Thousands of eligibility workers would lose our jobs.
Our clients would be forced to go through a corporate vendor (Maximus) to apply for human services — through the mail and by phone.
Maximus would get the state contract even though they have a bad record in other states because of this governor’s stated policy of starving the public sector. Read about a Wisconsin women's experience with Maximus: they wouldn't even answer her phone calls.

Right now they’re targeting Medi-Cal Eligibility for Children for outsourcing. If they succeed, all eligibility workers could fall like dominoes.

*The pilot program is included in the governor’s proposed 2005-06 State Budget.