SEIU 2015 President Arnulfo De La Cruz sits down with SEIU 2015 member leader Leilani Reed and St. John’s Community Health President & CEO, Jim Mangia, to discuss the fight for fair pay for LAIHSS workers, the essential role home care workers play in L.A. County, and why investing in fair wages benefits both caregivers and those they care for.
Transcript
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Welcome to Who Cares!, a podcast by SEIU 2015. I’m your host, Arnulfo De La Cruz, President of SEIU Local 2015, the largest union of long term care workers in the country. We represent over a half a million caregivers who show up every single day to care for older adults and people with disabilities all over the state of California.
Across our state, dedicated home care providers who’ve been organizing, mobilizing and winning from Yolo County to Fresno San Joaquin to Alameda and even at Home Bridge, which is California’s largest private agency caregivers have won new contracts with real wage increases. So proud of the leadership of our members for lifting up their voices, not just advocating for themselves, for their own working conditions, but understanding that there’s a direct relationship between the quality of people’s jobs and the quality of care that they provide to their recipients, to their consumers and their patients. These victories show us what’s possible when workers come together.
But let’s be clear also, there’s too many counties that still haven’t stepped into their leadership right now. IHSS workers in Santa Clara and SEIU in Shasta, Solano, Amador, Tulare, Kings, Inyo, Lake, and Trinity are still fighting for a contract and for fair pay. And even right here at home in Los Angeles, the first offer from LA County had absolutely no wage increase that was included–not even one cent.
And after months of pressure, rallies, testimony and organizing and caregivers and their allies lifting up their voices–home care providers finally have a tentative agreement for higher wages for LA County IHSS caregivers. It’s not final yet. It’s going to go to the members for a vote, but it’s still proof that our voices are being heard. And when we lift up our voices, it is of impact.
And today we’re going to be talking about what that means, why it matters, and what comes next. And I’m joined by two incredible leaders in their own right. Leilani Reed, a longtime SEIU 2015 member leader, has cared for her daughter for 20 years while working multiple jobs just to make ends meet, all while being a terrific leader in the community, on campaigns, on justice issues that are so important to Angelinos, but also caregivers, not just in California, but across the country.
Also Jim Mangia, the President and CEO of St John’s Community Health, a well respected and well known leader, not just in Los Angeles, across California and the country in expanding healthcare access, and a tireless advocate for social justice in Los Angeles. He has always been a dear friend of SEIU 2015 and an incredible ally as we fight together for justice, for Angelinos and Californians and beyond. Leilani and Jim, welcome to who cares.
Jim Mangia: Thank you so much, great to be here.
Leilani Reed: Thank you for having me.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Absolutely, appreciate you all being on and you know, we always start who cares with a care story, because caregiving is not something that’s abstract. Either someone has a care story or they’re going to, right? It’s personal. It’s about the love and the sacrifice and the dignity and that special relationship, both between the caregiver and those whom they’re caring for.
Leilani, you’ve cared for your daughter for two decades. Can you share your caregiving journey with us? What? What? What led you to leave your preschool teaching job and become a full time caregiver?
Leilani Reed: Yes, Arnulfo, what led me to become a home care provider. I was an educator, and, you know, I had some children in my classroom who had some behavioral problems, and I was doing an observation on a student, and I started to get phone calls from the school for my daughter about her behavior. And I noticed that on that observation list she checked off on a lot of you know, what was the symptoms that were on the list? And so right then, I knew what to do and how to go about to get my daughter the services that she needed.
And so I had to leave to take care of that, because the educational boards, you have to fight for a lot of advocating to get certain services for children that that’s available to them. So I had to leave, you know, because I was getting the phone calls, and I had to go and help, you know, my daughter because she needed, you know, the services, that’s how I ended up becoming a home care provider.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Wow, your daughter is so lucky to have you as her caregiver, and you’re so lucky to have each other. There’s nothing like the care of a mother to their child. So Leilani, what has it meant? For you and your family to balance the responsibility with, you know, caregiving and also the responsibilities of being a leader in your family?
Leilani Reed: It’s a lot, but it all works hand in hand, you know, understanding what my job is with my daughter, for my daughter, and then me sharing stories and experiences with other caregivers, and then understanding my leadership with my caregiver sisters and brothers, and how everything is working hard and being consistent. And I think that’s the big thing, is understanding how to balance just, you know, going strong, not giving up. You know, that’s the big thing. It’s not giving up and just continuing to fight on all hands. You know, it gets stressful at times when it’s a lot going on, and then you get, you know, backed up in that corner. You don’t know what to do or how to do, but because I have a really good community that I’m connected with. That’s what helps me.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: That’s exactly right. I mean, think that’s the strength of a union, whether you’re a teamster, a caregiver, a city employee, or a janitor. When we get tired and the fight becomes a lot, we have a shoulder to lean on, or a shoulder to cry on and stand in solidarity. And I’ve never, I’ve never seen you, Leilani, give up. Yes, we can see, SEIU 2015, you have always been in the trenches and really grateful for your incredible leadership.
Now, Jim, you brother, you’ve spent decades fighting for health care for Californians. You are an incredibly respected leader with so much experience. Do you have a personal story of caregiving?
Jim Mangia: Yeah, you know, my grandmother lived to be into her 90s, and when she hit around 91, she started to get some symptoms of dementia and she needed and she would have her good days and bad days. So she was stable, but she definitely needed support. And so we had an IHSS worker start to work with her and gradually increase those hours. But you know, there was a joke in the family, because Anna, who’s the woman that took care of her, took such good care of her that, you know, on her good days, she was taking my grandmother to bingo, she was going out to eat. They were, you know, doing all kinds of things together. And we used to joke around that, “oh, where’s, you know, Where’s grandma?” And, you know, we would say, “Oh, Anna took her, you know, water skiing.” Because they would just, she just took her everywhere and just made her life so, so wonderful, and so, you know, we had, we have a lot of grateful stories of IHS support that my family has received over the years.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Thank you, Jim, what a powerful story and what a wonderful visual. Right to keep joy in our lives, a picture of our grandmother’s water skiing. I think that’s a very powerful, joyful visual. So thank you for sharing that.
Let’s shift gears a little bit here and talk about what’s happening right here in Los Angeles County for months. Home care workers push the board of supervisors to do the right thing, right to depending on what list you look at the fastest growing job in America as a caregiver, and we’re very clear why that is because we have an aging population. We have an aging population in LA County, across the state of California and across the country. And how we care for seniors, how we care for people with disabilities, I think everyone would agree, is a reflection of the morals of our country, right, how we care for our aging population as a reflection of the morals of our country.
And so it was a real concern when the board of supervisors offered $0 this year as part of our contract negotiations, the county finally came to the table with a fair offer. And I also want to appreciate the leadership of first our members and our allies like Jim and really lifting up their voices around why home care in Los Angeles is a critical part of the health care delivery system and infrastructure, and also the largest public workforce, right? We’re talking about over 200,000 people. And so one also appreciates the supervisors who ultimately came together were able to work out their differences and prioritize care. And it’s a proposed one year agreement. We’re not done. We come back again in 12 months. But the point being is that really took a village to be able to get this decision.
Miss Leilani, when you heard about the tentative agreement. What went through your mind, how are you and your fellow home care providers in Los Angeles feeling about this agreement?
Leilani Reed: What went through my mind was like, “Okay, we did it.” And there were a lot of high emotions in the board of supervisors that day. We had members crying. Even though we understand that it’s tentative, but we did it. We moved the needle. So we were very, very excited in that BLS room on that day.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: That’s great. And, you know, we know this tentative deal. A lot of the people that you just shared were so emotional. Literally, you’re a caregiver. They’re waking up at four or five. If they’re coming from San Fernando Valley, from South LA, from the east side of the county, they’re coming on busses. They’re coming on trains, by hook or crook. They’re getting to the LA board of supervisors to make sure that their voices are heard. And so we know that wouldn’t have happened without the sacrifice of members going there and nearly every Tuesday with the rallies, the testimonies, and just like you and Jim just did by telling their stories, not everyone knows what it’s like to be a home care provider or receive care. This is work that happens behind closed doors, right? It’s not seen in the public unless you’re receiving care or providing it yourself. What do you think it was that allowed the Board of Supervisors to say, “Okay, you have our attention and we are going to take action.”?
Leilani Reed: I think it was us being consistent, coming down there every Tuesday and every time we met, we came in larger numbers. And then I believe when our allies began to speak on our behalf, that helped put the pressure too, but also the home caregivers. We weren’t giving up. We were coming out in numbers. We were sending out letters, making phone calls. I mean, we were just we were out there in the trenches. We were getting the job done.
And so I’m sure they felt us, because the message started changing. And, you know, it was getting real, real heated up in there. And so when they saw our allies coming, and when they saw that we weren’t giving up, and that we were consistent, that we were consistent, that we were coming, they just knew they had to do something, because you saying that you’re for us, okay, now we need action. We need to see that, you know.
So I was, I’m glad that I was a part of this, you know, making history. And it just feel good to just know that we have the power. And when we stand together, together in solidarity, we can move mountains, you know, together in strength, in those numbers and so and that’s what we did. We came out in numbers, and we got the job done.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Amen. And I, and Leilani, I wasn’t there every Tuesday, like you were, but every Tuesday that I was there, I saw you there and had the opportunity actually to sit right next to you one of those Tuesdays, and know how important it was to you to be there and you’re exactly right when we come together, we can literally move mountains. Congratulations and really appreciate your leadership, Jim, from your perspective as a healthcare leader and an advocate, what do you think this agreement means for both home care providers and for their consumers and also families and Angelinos who depend on them?
Jim Mangia: It was obviously a very, very, very important win, but it’s, you know, it’s a short win, right? Because we have to come back in a year, I just think the dialogue around healthcare is so limiting. We’re in such dire situation because of the Trump budget cuts, because of the governor’s budget cuts, and the political situation, that we really can’t have a dialogue around what does the healthcare system need and how do we get there? So for example, when SEIU 2015 was still ULTCW, we had a pilot project where we took a group of IHSS workers, paid them additional salary to bring them to a living wage and train them up on medication management, on chronic disease care, and we had IHSS workers working with people with serious chronic diseases. So it wasn’t only people with disabilities and seniors, but we were also working with patients with chronic disease, and we saw significant health improvements in those patients who worked with an IHSS worker, and we actually published that study.
But why aren’t we having that dialogue? Like, why aren’t we talking about and it’s because of the political situation. But you know, the challenge to our policymakers is, how come we’re not talking about how to expand IHSS? How come we’re not talking about the living wage for IHSS workers? How come we’re not talking about the vital role that IHSS workers play in the healthcare delivery system and could play to transform it into a much more patient centered system? And so that’s, you know, that’s where I believe we have to fight.
And, you know, and they have us in these battles to get, you know, a little bit of an increase in pay for IHSS workers when we should be talking about, you know, how we’re going to change the health care system so that IHSS workers are seen and expanded as an integral part of that system.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: And you’re exactly right. It reminds me, we get forced to fight sometimes over sense, but we lose sight of the much bigger picture, which is, is health care a right in this country, or is it a privilege? And I think we all would agree that it’s absolutely a right, and I know that other you know, there’s other societies that really believe in that they help to resource it. And we’re now in a situation where home care workers, kind of like farm workers back in the day, it was work that was behind not seen, it was work that was not valued and resourced. And in 2025 you have home care providers without retirement, home care providers who care for family members who have no social security, right? These are folks who have given their all as caregivers, and sometimes have very little in return.
So Jim, what you’re talking about is we really are up against not a group of electeds or a specific county. We’re up against a system in this country that has made domestic work and home care work, not on equal part to other American work. And I think the journey that we’ve been on together is to recognize that this is not only the fastest growing job in America, it’s work that deserves to be valued and has a direct impact on the people that home care providers care for, right? And so, so grateful to have you along for part of that journey and really getting into those big questions.
And as as part of that journey, wow, even, Leilani, since 2015 started, or, like Jim said, ULTCW, to see what the wages were in Los Angeles before there was a union to what they are. Now, it’s not enough, but it sure has been an enormous amount of progress. What would it mean for you and your family if these wages go through?
Leilani Reed: It would mean some stress relief, not all, but a little, and I’m sure for other home care providers also, yeah, it would just, it’ll be a little stress. Would be, you know, off of me, where some people have to pay bills in three payments. This may mean you might be able to pay a bill on time. The whole thing, you know, not part of it so it would, it would release some stress. I’m very sure it will release some stress.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Yes, ma’am. And I think a lot of people can relate to that across Los Angeles. This is not the solution. It’s progress. And we come, as Jim said, we come back in 12 months to continue our work on making sure that home care providers, most importantly, are paid a living wage, right? And Jim, I know that you believe investing in home care workers saves lives and money. Could you expand a little bit on that for our listeners?
Jim Mangia: So one thing we have to talk about is, you know, the interconnectedness of our health care delivery system and the fact that parts of our healthcare delivery system don’t talk to other parts of our healthcare delivery system, and therefore, a lot of things fall through the cracks. So when you’re talking about a person you know, with a chronic disease, a person with disability or seniors, and the connection between the doctor and the patient is often frayed in that there’s not a lot of communication. The doctor’s not as available as they need to be.
Jim Mangia: But the kind of support that an IHSS worker provides is that linkage between the care team, between the doctor, between the patient and we don’t see IHSS workers as an integral part of that care team, and yet, we know over and over again the significant health improvements and the quality of life improvements that IHSS workers bring to our communities and to our healthcare delivery system.
So what we have to recognize is that expansion of IIHSS, work and workers means the improvement of health outcomes for our patients, because that link is what is failing in our healthcare delivery system. So I really feel like we have to understand home health care workers as an integral part of our health care delivery system and as a key linkage between the professional doctors and nurse practitioners and the nurses and the patient. And there’s also a real disconnect between that.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Thank you so much, Jim. And I think that really speaks to you know, even learning what’s been happening in LA other counties can learn from that the state and national leaders on healthcare can learn from that. That’s a really powerful reflection. Appreciate you sharing that. And again, for folks listening, this tentative agreement in LA is a big step, but it’s not over, right? It has to be ratified and voted on by the members. Ms Leilani, what do we need to do to make sure that this deal becomes a reality?
Leilani Reed: Arnulfo, we have to continue to fight and to reach out to all of our home care providers, our family members, people in our community, and explain to them exactly what is happening and how important it is for us to get out to vote and for them to understand what this administration is doing and how it will affect everybody, you know, one way or another, and for us, we have to continue to do what we’re doing, phone banking, canvassing, educating, you know everybody, and letting them know that this is a 911 time. You know, this is serious, this is an emergency, and we can’t give up just because it’s tentative. You know, we don’t get lax where we like, Okay, we have time. We have a year. No, we have to continue to strategize now and know how we’re going to, you know, continue to fight, and I believe us, continuing to be consistent. That’s the big thing. You know, just being consistent with what we’re doing.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: That’s exactly right, continuing to speak up. I know that, Leilani, you inspire me. You inspire so many folks, other caregivers.
Now to shift gears a little bit right beyond LA, as Californians, we’re going to have an opportunity to participate in this vote on Proposition 50, an incredibly important measure on the ballot right around the corner this November. This is another opportunity for us to engage in a process and make our voices heard. And the win in LA for caregivers is important, but this fight and this journey that Jim and Leilani, you both speak to not giving up, making sure that we’re dealing with these bigger questions around the future of care, as as you had mentioned, Leilani the difficult budget situation, and Jim also spoke to.
This national landscape is making it harder in 2026 because the decisions in Washington around Medicaid, which is the primary funding source for home care and long term care, that backs up all the way into our municipalities and our counties, which also starts to cut services, et cetera. So we’re going to have to find ways to be more creative, and working with counties to maintain services, to pay for wages for caregivers and find the dollars to make it all possible.
And we know that we can win this fight, but it is going to take all of us, and I really appreciate Jim’s framing around these bigger questions on how we provide care in this country and how those who receive health care are respected, but also those who are providing it are cared for, right? And we know that this, this is an interplay around the health care delivery system decisions that elected officials make over public resources, but even other things like this issue of immigration, right, a big part of the health care delivery system is also powered by immigrant workers in California, which have been under an enormous amount of stress, given a lot of the recent decisions that have been coming out of Washington. But we’re confident that as Californians, we can all stand together.
So just to close, Jim, a question for you. Given the challenging environment that we see at the federal level, with the state budgets, both for caregivers in LA County but also across California. Do you see any opportunities ahead of us, given how difficult the current situation is, and is there anything you want to invite us to think about as we continue to build a future of care that we can be proud of?
Jim Mangia: So I think you know, one of the things that as a federally qualified health center, as a nonprofit healthcare provider, the reality is that the state budget cuts are significantly worse than the federal budget cuts, right? So Gavin Newsom’s cuts are worse than Donald Trump’s cuts when it comes to healthcare for the community, when it comes to immigrant healthcare. So we’ve got to really push back on this notion that we have to basically fall in line behind Trump’s agenda and make those kinds of cuts to immigrant health, to transgender health, to black maternal health, all of those things that are being cut in response to the Trump administration. I think we need to fight back on that front. So yes, we need prop 50. We need to fight on the political front, but we also need to fight on the policy front. We can’t allow Donald Trump to dominate the policy agenda and only fight on the political front.
We’ve got to push back on these cuts that you know, some of which are coming as a result of the federal cuts, but the state has to do better, and I think we have an opportunity in LA County to possibly get a revenue measure on the ballot and allow the LA voters to decide to fund healthcare, backfill all of these cuts that are coming from the feds and the state, and make a bold statement that we are not going to stand by and allow Donald Trump to make the kinds of cuts to healthcare that are devastating our communities, and that’s what St John’s is going to be working on, putting together a coalition To put a measure on the county ballot to raise the revenue to backfill all of these cuts and make sure that we can provide the kinds of quality and care that our communities deserve.
Arnulfo De La Cruz: Wow. Well, Leilani, that sounds great to us, and we look forward to Jim being a part of that conversation. And you’re exactly right: this issue of revenue, and I really appreciate you saying, look, it’s not all just coming out of Washington. That we have to hold California leadership accountable to the needs of our members of our communities, especially those communities who are under-resourced and undervalued.
Leilani, looking forward to seeing you and Jim, both of you soon, and really just incredible leadership and for sharing your powerful stories today.
And so for those folks listening, you know, based on what Leilani and Jim said, home care workers spoke up in LA. They fought back, not just in LA, but across the state, and won a fair contract from the largest county in the nation. So this is really, really significant, you all, and the tentative agreement shows what’s possible when we don’t give up. It’s going to take all of us to finish this fight.
To our listeners. If you live in LA County, stay tuned and engaged. The tentative agreement for home care wages still needs to be finalized, and we can’t stop lifting up our voices until it is across California. Proposition 50 will be on the ballot this November, and SEIU 2015 encourages our members to make sure they’re registered, return their ballots and stays informed and vote yes, every vote matters, and participating helps ensure that the voices of caregivers in their communities are heard.
Remember, if you have a loved one who needs care, this fight is for you. If you’ve ever worried about how you’ll age with dignity. This is an important conversation for you, and if you believe no one working full time should live in poverty, this fight is also for you. I’m Arnulfo De La Cruz, and this has been Who Cares. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other, and we’ll see you next time.