Morgan Hill
– A deal has been reached.
Union employees and management of local human services agency
Community Solutions agreed on a new contract Thursday, avoiding a
strike that union employees had set for Feb. 11.
Morgan Hill – A deal has been reached.
Union employees and management of local human services agency Community Solutions agreed on a new contract Thursday, avoiding a strike that union employees had set for Feb. 11.
Under the contract, which the agency’s board of directors still needs to approve, employees will receive a 1-percent raise this year and a 2-percent raise next year, with wage negotiations re-opening in 2007.
This year, the agency’s funding from Santa Clara County is expected to increase approximately $55,000 in cost-of-living adjustments. The new contract states 70 percent of that increase will be converted to employee salaries, which equates to an additional 1.4-percent increase per employee.
Community Solutions will pay complete health coverage for all employees, their spouses and all dependents under Kaiser plans. For employees who want to stay with the more expensive Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, the agency will pay up to what Kaiser would provide and employees will pay the difference. Currently, 32 of the agency’s 68 union employees have plans with Kaiser.
The last point of contention, the issue of seniority and lay-offs, also was settled. The new contract specifies that management should take into consideration both skill level and experience when laying off employees.
After negotiating with management until 10:30pm Wednesday, union voted 41-1 Thursday afternoon in favor of the new contract.
“I think we got an awesome contract. We’re really pleased with it,” said Kristina Estrada, program coordinator at Community Solutions and member of the employee negotiating team.
Andrew Hagelshaw, spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 715 that represented the employees, said workers were happy with the agreement.
Agency staff approved the agreement Thursday. The contract, valid through October 2007, will be brought to the agency’s board within the next few days.
“It’s not a contract anyone is jumping up and down about, but it is one that we feel is responsible,” said Erin O’Brien, CEO and president of Community Solutions, adding that the negotiation process on Wednesday was far more constructive than prior sessions. “It’s a tough place for everyone to be in.”
Negotiations began in December, broke for the holidays and resumed in January. Management proposed an offer Jan. 21, 10 days before the contract expired.
After an hour-long rally in Morgan Hill on Monday, union employees voted to authorize a strike if continuing negotiations with agency management didn’t come through. The strike was set to begin Feb. 11.
The dynamics of being a nonprofit organization can contribute to tension between union employees and staff, O’Brien said.
“To me, unions and nonprofits have to do business very differently than unions and for-profits,” O’Brien said. “Our clients are the priority for us and our staff. It sets up an ‘us against them,’ and it’s very divisive. There were getting to be a lot of bad feelings, and we needed to step back say, ‘OK, how do we work together on this?'”
O’Brien said the agency will try to shift as many employees as possible over to Kaiser to help mitigate increases in health costs that “have been clobbering us with no end in sight,” she said.
O’Brien emphasized that the primary goal for the entire agency, union employees and management alike, is to provide quality service to clients.
“The need in South County is huge. There aren’t very many service providers in this area,” she said. “If we have to turn someone away for service, it’s not like they can walk across the street and knock on someone else’s door. Many have to go down to San Jose. I feel a particular responsibility to meet the needs of folks in South County, because they don’t have very many alternatives.”
The agency is still in a hiring freeze in the face of severe funding cuts that are guaranteed next year, O’Brien said, as a number of grants are set to expire.
“We’re doing our best to be very aggressive in writing foundation grants and county grants,” she said. “Every grant we apply for has to stay within our mission, and we’re trying to bring in as much as we can. But our services and staffing will be hit hard next year.”
Community Solutions provides behavioral health care, prevention and education, counseling, and domestic violence and rape crisis services to communities in South Santa Clara County and San Benito County. The agency has three offices in Morgan Hill and one in Gilroy. Last year, Community Solutions served 13,500 clients.
