FIFTY-EIGHT DISABLED custodial workers at an all-male state prison in Solano County are scheduled to lose their jobs June 30 unless stakeholders reach an agreement with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Some of the workers have mental and physical disabilities, some have lost limbs in war, and some may need to take a break at times or share their tasks with other workers due to their disabilities.
They are employed by PRIDE Industries, a nonprofit headquartered in Roseville that offers training and finds jobs for people with disabilities. PRIDE Industries has been contracted by the state since 2019 to provide workers to the California Medical Facility state prison in Vacaville, but their contracts have been entangled in a labor dispute for years and are set to expire this summer.
According to Anica Walls, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, the state should be obligated to hire the Vacaville workers as civil service employees, with all the benefits and securities that come with that.
“For years, the union has pushed the state to end its overreliance on outsourcing and to bring workers with disabilities into union-protected, civil service roles,” Walls said in a statement. “Since 2016, we’ve raised this issue with California Correctional Health Care Services and PRIDE directly, but the state has failed to take meaningful action. These workers often do the same critical work as state employees — but without the pay, benefits, or protections that come with a civil service job.”
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.
“If the state truly cared about equity and inclusion, it would have hired these workers into permanent civil service roles years ago,” said Walls.
Most of the PRIDE employees in Vacaville receive $29 an hour. PRIDE provides medical benefits, and there is a matching fund for people who want to put in their own dollars into a pension fund.
Mary Flores, vice president of custodial environmental services with PRIDE Industries, said that state employees have retirement benefits which go in perpetuity, unlike their workers.
“Civil service has what’s called a merit-based system, so they have to take testing in order to be a civil servant worker,” said Flores. “We don’t know what kind of support they would give a person with a disability taking that test. That’s the first hurdle.”
All U.S. employers must provide reasonable accommodations through the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Flores said PRIDE Industries goes beyond those accommodations. PRIDE provides job coaches that offer support on every shift at the location, she said. Some of them use different assistive technologies, like wheelchairs or hearing aids.
“That’s another area that the prison is pretty strict on, any type of electronic devices,” she said. “We also can provide transportation. We give time off for medical appointments. What’s different about what we do is that we have a program.”
“If the state truly cared about equity and inclusion, it would have hired these workers into permanent civil service roles years ago.”
Anica Walls, president of SEIU Local 1000
Flores said PRIDE employees work well alongside civil service employees, as they do in Stockton’s California Health Care Facility, another state prison.
“My personal opinion is that there’s enough work for everyone,” she said.
PRIDE is hoping to collaborate with the state and the union to come up with a permissible solution.
“What’s at stake here are people with disabilities that have jobs, right? It’s been very hard for them to have these notices hanging over their heads and still working in that environment, but they do. These employees love their jobs,” she said.
California Correctional Health Care Services did not respond to requests for comment.
