Kern County workers with SEIU 521 rallying out the outside the County Administration Building on July 16. (Haley Duval/Kern Sol News)
Kern County workers with SEIU 521 union rallied outside the County Administration Building for higher wages early Tuesday morning.
SEIU 521 is a service employees international union that represents over 5,500 permanent and extra help in Kern County. Including the departments: Human Services, Aging and Adult, Public Works, Animal Services, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, Public Health, Sheriff-Coroner, Probation, Public Defenders, Kern County Library and General Services.
According to SEIU, on July 2, workers’ union received a budget presentation from the County’s management team and acknowledged that several departments, including the Roads Department and the Department of Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, are set to eliminate the budgeted vacant positions. It was also admitted by the County that service levels were not considered in the planning process for these position eliminations.
After the protest several workers with SEIU spoke during Tuesday’s Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting to share their concerns and their work experiences on why eliminating budgeted positions would worsen the staffing crisis for several reasons.
John French, who has been with Kern Behavioral Health for 18 years as a substance use disorder specialist spoke about the issues they are currently facing as a workforce.
He said at Kern BHRS year after year they have answered the call to address issues of the fentanyl crisis, the mental health crisis, the rising number of unhoused people and crime among others. Often at the risk of their own personal safety he said.
“We are often called to go places where law enforcement won’t go without weapons or backup,” French continued. “I personally know this, having been viciously attacked by a client on a home visit. Yet we are currently hindered by poor wages, poor employee retention levels, unmanageable workloads, and the threat of not being able to fill all the positions necessary to address the aforementioned crises effectively.”
French goes on to say the public’s trust should never be broken because of an unwillingness to invest in solutions.
“The solution is to ensure a workforce, a current VHS that is big enough and well funded enough to meet the needs of the community,” he explained.
Jose Rene Marentes Arredondo, who also spoke on the behalf of Kern Behavioral Health said there is a huge crisis in the fentanyl and homeless crisis in Kern County. He said when people are fighting addiction, they need help, and they link them to resources. They give them treatment, hold groups, and try to figure out a way to have people who are fighting addiction think differently so they don’t use it.
Arredonodo explained it is a really hard task to do while being so short staffed.
“When our employees leave for another higher paying position, we found out that we might not get these positions refilled. This is a problem for us,” Arredondo said.
Jaime Alas, who works for the Department of Human Services, said he works with vulnerable populations who experience neglect or some form of abuse and who struggle to advocate for themselves. It is important that they strive to provide quality services to this population, he said.
Alas goes on to explain it is not only his responsibility but also the County’s responsibility to provide them with quality services by maintaining a high caseload.
“We cannot provide them with quality services with the stressed out staff who feel dismissed by this board. We cannot provide them with quality services when the board disses the retention issue,” Alas said.
“I just want you to know I was so encouraged to see you this morning,” District 5 Supervisor Leticia Perez told members of the union after the public statements. “I have every faith that we’re going to move towards a new resolution. I do. I just do. I feel it. I believe it.”