CFS Social Worker Update - December 17, 2021

Dear OCEA member,

On Wednesday, December 15, two important meetings occurred in the campaign to win improvements for OCEA Social Workers in CFS. The first meeting was the CFS Caseload Management Forum. First, thank you to all the Social Workers who provided critical feedback to OCEA staff during the forum. Workplace leaders and OCEA staff use this information to challenge management’s power. During the meeting, OCEA staff presented CFS Division Management with a series of demands based on long-time worker demands as well as recent workplace pressures. Click here for a summary of these demands.

The core of the demands center around workplace dignity, respect, and allowing workers to be rewarded for their professional and personal sacrifices. During the Caseload Management Forum, these demands were presented to the CFS Division Management for immediate consideration. Management was also put on notice that these demands would be presented to SSA Director Debra Baetz later in the day.

The second meeting also took place on Wednesday, December 15. OCEA Labor Relations Staff and OCEA General Manager Charles Barfield met with Debra Baetz and Chief Deputy Director An Tran. The list of demands was presented along with the context provided by CFS employees in response to the issues survey sent out a few weeks ago. Sharing the additional context gave OCEA staff an opportunity to elaborate on the urgency of these demands. Our demands were presented along with a timeline. Due to the urgent nature of specific demands, we reasonably expect tangible change to occur in 60 days or less. The remainder of the demands will require more long-term problem solving and overall culture change, which will require long-term effort. The Directors were put on notice that the demands would be sent to the County CEO and Director of Human Resources after the meeting.

Your demands and messages were well received by Director Baetz and she acknowledged that significant change is needed in the CFS Division. However, many of the issues presented are longstanding and have gone on for far too long. We know “good intentions” will not solve them. This is why we need workplace leaders in every program to drive the change and help hold management accountable for implementing these changes. Yesterday’s meetings were simply the starting point.  If you want to be the eyes and ears in your program, please email OCEA Sr. Organizer Alisha Greene Agreene@ocea.org. We also need every Social Worker to text the word SOCIALWORKER to 43506 to get important updates in real-time.

Our next steps are to update our allies on the OC Board of Supervisors and set follow-up meetings with CFS Management and County Management to begin negotiating solutions.

A union is working people standing together. OCEA is built on the ethic of workers caring about workers – empathizing with each other, taking responsibility for each other, and for the public we serve. We stand together to protect and empower everyone through our collective power and through our MOU. A union is not a consumer product you shop for at Wal-Mart. It is a place where workers have power to make change in their lives by building power. To attain the things we value both for ourselves and for the common good - dignity, respect, and work life balance - we must approach these things as co-creators of workplace power.

Together, we are part of something larger than ourselves.  We must stand together, not as isolated individuals and divisions. We are part of the American labor movement - the movement that provided Americans with weekends, overtime, and workplace safety. We are part of OCEA. The union that provided a path to the middle class for hundreds of thousands of public servants, protected public service through the 1994 Bankruptcy, and the union that helped elect the largest number of pro-union politicians to office. Currently, we have the most pro-union political representation in Orange County’s history.

The fight to win improvements in the workplace requires many steps. Political pressure, workplace leadership, and constant organizing. We must recall the words of Fredrick Douglas, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

In Solidarity,

Team OCEA

Publication Date: December 17, 2021