Employees dressed in purple gathered outside Community Solutions Tuesday afternoon with noisemakers and signs in a labor union rally for better pay, better benefits and more time off.
“They’re not giving us a living wage,” said Luis Vasquez, a case manager who works with teenagers and young adults at the leading South County Social Services Agency. “That’s what it comes down to.”
The collective negotiating agreement being discussed between the agency and its employees includes decisions about employee leave, discipline, pay and benefits. Negotiations have been in progress for a week and a half and will end today, Thursday, protesters said.
Community Solutions, South County’s largest nonprofit human services agency for more than 40 years, employees 183 people and offers a broad spectrum of services for mental health, substance abuse, family dysfunction, sexual assault, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence and youth development. They work in partnership with community-based organizations, law enforcement, local schools and County health and human service providers.
Santa Clara County does not have the in-house facilities for mental health programs and contracts these services out to organizations such as Community Solutions, explained Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Representative Rebeca Armendariz.
County workers represented by SEIU received a 2 percent pay increase that will change to a 3 percent increase in June as part of recent contract negotiations. Contracted workers like those employed by Community Solutions want the same cost of living adjustment, Armendariz explained.
The contract proposed by Community Solutions includes a 1 percent increase in pay and changes to health benefits, which protesters say won’t adequately address the costs of living. If the current plans proposed by Community Solutions are approved, employees will contribute $40 every pay period towards benefits when they previously contributed nothing. Co-pays will increase; dependents will be 50 percent instead of 100 percent covered by the medical plan; and employees will pay more towards prescriptions, explained Shawna Homen, a Community Solutions Case Manager.
Homen was among the rally participants Tuesday, wearing purple shoes and scarf as she marched with a sign to support her union’s efforts.
“We want to be able to attract and retain high quality staff,” said Community Solutions CEO Erin O’Brien. “We need to make decisions that are also solid in terms of business choices.”
Community Solutions did their homework before contract negotiations started and asked at least a dozen other mental health contractors – union and non-union – to fill out a compensation survey according to O’Brien, who said this gave Community Solutions an idea of the status quo.
“These rallies are kind of a normal part of negotiations,” she added Tuesday, when at least 45 employees stood in front of the Community Solutions building and walked the length of Murray Avenue.
“Let’s go around the corner, so they can see us better from the corner office,” Armendariz called over the megaphone.
Chants and sign waving was met by occasional honks and cheers from people who drove by the protest. One man stopped to look, then shrugged his shoulders before driving away.
In addition to better pay and benefits, employees like Vasquez are asking for “more realistic time off” from a job that involves providing mental health services, working with the homeless and reaching out to battered women.
“We need to heal from all the things we’re seeing in the community,” he said.
Many protesters took time off work or lunch to protest, but all returned to the building by 12:50 p.m., ten minutes before employees and management would reconvene to continue discussing the contract.
“The purpose of us gathering is to send a message to management that what they’re offering is not fair and just,” said John Delgado, who has worked at Community Solutions for more than 14 years. “You can go off a COLA rate, but if it doesn’t match the cost of living then they should give us what’s appropriate.”
