Children’s Therapy Center Bargaining Continues!

In our second day of bargaining, we received the Employer’s counters to our proposals, including non-economic language, economic language and pure economics (including wages and health insurance). When looking over their proposals, we found a few pleasant surprises, alongside a number of items we expect we will need to discuss at length.

Pleasant Surprises

Caseloads; We had a pleasant discussion with the employer at the end of the day to help better understand how the caseload math reflected on current caseloads. CTC seemed receptive to what the team had to say and wanted to utilize the caseload calculator we created to help inform their decision. We also were able to get the employer to agree that their should be additional compensation when our max caseload is exceeded.
 
Hours of Work and Overtime: We helped create the framework for codifying the ability to create your own schedules as you already do.
 
Wage Scale: The Employer agreed to a wage scale with longevity increases, meaning you would get a raise every year on the anniversary of your date of hire.
 
Labor Management Committee: CTC agreed to have a labor management committee where employees can come together with Management on a regular basis to discuss issues affecting the workforce. We have to negotiate the composition of the committee, but the Employer has agreed to it in principle and also agreed to compensate employees who participate.
 
Placement on Wage Scales: The Employer agreed to place employees on the wage scale commensurate with their previous health care experience. While there are other provisions surrounding this we need to discuss, this is a positive development.
 
Parking: CTC will provide parking at their facilities at no cost to the employees and any parking charges for parking lots or meters incurred while on business will be reimbursed no later than 30 days after submission.
 
Business Provided Cell Phone: Instead of a stipend, CTC will provide workers with a work phone so they do not have to comingle personal data with business.

Needs More Work

Health Insurance: Our proposal focuses on lowering costs for health care to employees. Their response did not indicate much movement on the topic, however, as this is the beginning of negotiations, this is not a huge concern. This will be something we continue to discuss in future sessions. With health care costs as high as they are, employees need help to afford the health plans they deserve.
 
No Across the Board Wage Increases: Instead of negotiating increases for the entire wage scale, CTC has proposed to conduct market surveys to determine wage increases. This negates our ability to help determine the raises we deserve and rely on data we do not have access to and is not relevant to a union setting.
 
Wages: CTC proposed wage increases for FRC and Program Assistants based on “market analysis” and proposed all other wages stay the same. Wage scales will take a long time to develop.
 
“We’re encouraged to see there were a decent amount of terms we agreed to. While there is still a lot on the table, we were pleasantly surprised by the progress.” -Lindsay Gilbert, Family Resource Coordinator

Our Union Union Bargaining Team: Lindsay Gilbert-Family Resource Coordinator, Ronda Duluoz-Infant Mental Health, Megan Rupert-Special Educator

Contract Action Team Meeting: November 6 at 7pm Online via Zoom >>

Meeting ID: 824 9360 4319 Passcode: 006413