Workers at Rebekah Children’s Services will protest what they
feel is a less-than-acceptable raise Tuesday, a week after fellow
union members employed at another Gilroy nonprofit protested not
receiving a raise.
Workers at Rebekah Children’s Services will protest what they feel is a less-than-acceptable raise Tuesday, a week after fellow union members employed at another Gilroy nonprofit protested not receiving a raise.
Family therapists, crisis counselors, case managers and other union employees who work with children affected by emotional, mental and behavioral problems will picket at noon outside their office at 290 IOOF Ave. Some of the employees also picketed last week to support workers at Community Solutions who have been offered a no so-called “cost of living adjustment.” Click here to read that story.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor will release consumer price index numbers for October, but figures from September showed that prices increased by 4.9 percent over last year.
Rebekah’s union employees, who earn an average of $40,000 a year, have been offered a COLA of less than 1 percent by managers who earn between 90,000 to $150,000 a year, according to Khanh Weinberg, communications specialist for the Service Employees International Union, Local 521, which represents more than 52,000 workers in the Bay Area.
“The dedicated staff working at Rebekah is only asking for a reasonable COLA increase to provide for their families at a time of economic turmoil,” Weinberg wrote in a statement Monday.
Management could not be reached for comment, so it was unclear what sort of raise, if any, high-ranking, non-union personnel expected. Weinberg did say, though, that management has justified its fractional offer by claiming financial losses this year. But the Rebekah’s most recent federal income tax filings from February 2008 show that the nonprofit ended up in the black by $658,150 for the 2006-07 fiscal year. At the end of that year, in June 2007, the community group’s net reserves totaled about $12.6 million, and its executive director, Sharif Etman, earned more than $125,000 last year.
While it was unclear how the nonprofit’s financial health had changed sine then, Weinberg said, “Simply put, the funds are there and front line workers deserve fair compensation for their work.”
Check back tomorrow for updates from the protest and a response from management.
