On the last day of February, over 60 janitorial and custodial workers are scheduled to lose their jobs at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, a male-only state prison.
The potential mass layoff is the result of a contract dispute between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Service Employees International Union Local 1000.
The SEIU said in an email it has argued since 2016 that the facility was in violation of state law because it did not hire the workers as state employees. Instead, the state subcontracted them through PRIDE Industries, a nonprofit headquartered in Roseville that specializes in training and placement for people with disabilities.
In May 2023, the State Personnel Board agreed with SEIU’s position but extended the PRIDE Industries’ contract three separate times while pursuing a long-term solution. The original contract was set to run through June 30, 2025, supporting up to 80 positions.
In August, the board permitted the employees to stay on through February.
Cleaning crisis threatening health
Suzanne Ambrose of the State Personnel Board shared the extension decision in a letter to the SEIU and California Correctional Health Care Services, the state department responsible for providing health care to the state’s prison population. Ambrose acknowledged that the CDCR had made headway in recruiting civil service workers, but the effort still fell short of what is needed. Heightening the issue, she said, the facility is under federal receivership and any significant lapse in the medical delivery and quality of care may adversely impact the delegation of the facility’s oversight back to the state.
“More importantly, the fact remains that the inmate patient population at California Medical Facility are literally and figuratively captive to the medical services provided,” Ambrose wrote. “Inadequate and spotty cleaning could reasonably contribute to unsanitary conditions at CMF, thus jeopardizing the health and wellbeing of those inmates.”
In that same August letter, the State Personnel Board ordered the California Correctional Health Care Services to meet with SEIU Local 1000 as soon as possible to discuss hiring PRIDE employees into the civil service positions.
The California Medical Facility was established in 1955 by the Legislature to meet the medical, psychiatric, and dental health care needs of male felons incarcerated in state prisons. The facility operates an inpatient psychiatric and medical health crisis treatment center with nearly 400 beds and has a 17-bed hospice.
According to the California Correctional Healthcare Services Dashboard, janitorial staff at the California Medical Facility make $22 an hour.
Spokesperson Mark Borges said PRIDE Industries offers a starting rate of $29 per hour for environmental services technicians, their equivalent job classification to civil service custodian jobs.
“When including benefits and pension costs, we estimate that PRIDE Industries’ total compensation package is actually less than civil service,” he said.
Layoff notifications were sent to all employees currently on staff at the Vacaville Center. State law requires layoffs of more than 50 people to be made public no later than 60 days prior to termination.
“The State Personnel Board has opted to terminate the contract early,” said Mary Flores, who runs the custodial and environmental services at PRIDE Industries. “Despite the California Medical Facility’s demonstrated inability to fill these positions with civil service staff. We believe that, with all parties at the table, it is possible to preserve these jobs and their critical benefits for employees with disabilities and service-disabled veterans.”
Civil service jobs provide critical protections — such as fair wages, secure benefits, and strong job security — that contracted positions often lack.
SEIU Local 1000 president Anica Walls
In an email statement, SEIU Local 1000 president Anica Walls said that since 2016, the union has actively engaged with CCHCS and PRIDE to address the overreliance on outsourcing and made specific demands to transition PRIDE workers into civil service roles, ensuring they receive the same wages, benefits, and job protections as other state workers.
“We challenged the outsourcing of custodial services at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville because it violated civil service protections enshrined in the California State Constitution,” she wrote, unhappy that the contracts were extended. “Civil service jobs provide critical protections — such as fair wages, secure benefits, and strong job security – that contracted positions often lack.”