Children's Therapy Center - Bargaining Update: Session #7

On February 12, we met for our seventh bargaining session with management to continue negotiations on our first contract. We received a response to our proposals from January 23 from the Employer at 10:30am and have been making steady progress.

After our discussion regarding inclement weather, the Employer came back with a proposal that addressed the majority of the concerns of the team from their previous proposal on the subject. We agreed to a 5% minimum increase in pay for those who obtain certification or licensing within the same covered discipline throughout their employment at CTC. This means if a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, Developmental Specialist, Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (or other positions) obtains their licensing while working at CTC, they will receive no less than a 5% increase. We also have had ongoing conversations surrounding the caseload calculator.

We presented management last time with our market analysis of wages, so they returned with publicly listed jobs that had information about wages and paid time off at other organizations. The Employer is insisting their "Total Compensation Package" (which includes paid time off and health care insurance amongst other benefits) is the reason why their competitors might pay more or less in wages than CTC. The way we see it is our health care costs are very high, we do not feel our wages are very competitive, and we are offered less in total time off than other employers. We have pointed out to CTC that the current compensation model has not attracted candidates to fill open positions, leaving CTC with more vacancies compared to similar employers. It is difficult to reconcile how all of these components factor into the "total compensation" offered by the Employer, and we are currently analyzing the information to inform our next response.

We spent the rest of the day working on a response, however, we were unable to finalize one before the end of the day. Our next meeting with the Employer is on February 27, and we will present our proposals in the morning.

Please join us for a Contract Action Team meeting on February 24 at 7pm to discuss our next steps in securing our first Union contract!

Children's Therapy Center Bargaining Update - Session 4 - December 12

We left our fourth meeting with the Employer feeling like overall, this was a productive session. In the morning, we presented the Employer with our responses to all of the proposals on the table. This proposal from our Bargaining Team included a significant number of individual articles we've agreed to, in addition to items that the Employer had previously agreed to. As we discussed the proposals with the Employer, we are really beginning to see where our proposals align and other places where additional work will need to be done to reach mutually aligned language.

Directly following our meeting with the Employer in the morning, their team stayed in our conference room to engage in a productive conversation regarding caseloads. During this meeting, the Employer walked us through their calculations and we were pleased to see that they had clearly put in a lot of thought and effort into their proposal. The Employer also acknowledged what they see as responsibilities that fall outside of the "direct time" calculations, and how these would impact the final caseload calculations for each worker. While more discussion is planned on the caseload contract language, we were encouraged by the consideration management gave to this.

Prior to departing in the early afternoon, the Employer returned to our meeting room to ask questions about our proposals, and committed to returning us a response at our next scheduled date on January 14.

Children's Therapy Center - Bargaining Update—Session Cancelled

We are disappointed to share that management has canceled our upcoming bargaining session—which was scheduled for tomorrow, October 15—stating that their reason for doing so is a proposal which they felt was incomplete or missing information.

Specifically, management referenced our proposed "Caseload" language, which was intended to outline the anticipated workload of the various positions represented in our union contract, and includes factors like whether an employee is serving as a mentor, if they're a specialty coordinator for CHERISH, and so on. The proposed article we shared with the employer on October 3 outlines how different patient requirements are to be calculated together to ensure these are all considered in our overall workload.

After clarifying the language to the employer to show how the calculations would be completed based on the article—our bargaining team came together and drafted an example of a caseload document, which we then shared with the employer.

In summary, we shared that cancelling a session due to questions they have on certain proposal(s) feels counter intuitive to our bargaining team. We are hopeful that we have signaled our willingness to work with the employer and look forward to engaging in discussion and exchange of proposals at our next session on October 28.

Tonight, we have a Contract Action Team committee meeting, the details of which have been emailed out. This will be held with your representative Ian Jacobson and will help clarify any questions you might have.

Contract Action Team Committee Meeting

October 14, 2025
7pm

Children's Therapy Center - Bargaining Update: It's All Out There!

On Friday, October 3, our bargaining team met with management for our second day of negotiations on our first union contract.

We began our second bargaining day putting the finishing touches on what we would later present to the employer as the final few new proposals we expect to make towards our union contract. These primarily consist of the economic sections, some of which we have highlighted below:

Scheduling: A proposal to memorialize existing practices when it comes to our work schedules, particularly our day-to-day flexibility.

Caseloads: We proposed a framework to outline the appropriate day-to-day caseloads for each job classification and proposed earning an hourly premium when maximum caseloads are exceeded for a prolonged period of time.

Premiums: We proposed additional compensation if you hold specialty certifications, train or mentor new employees, are qualified to care for patients who are deaf/hard of hearing or require medically complex feeding, and more!

Health Insurance: Proposed that the employer pay more towards the cost of our health insurance premiums.

Continuing Education: We proposed to increase the amount of money available to employees for continuing education related expenses, as well as an increase to the paid education time we can utilize.

Wages and Placement on the Wage Scale: We proposed union wage scales which outline set increases for both continued years of experience and future cost-of-living adjustments. Furthermore, our bargaining team proposed a pathway for current employees to be placed onto these wage scales, incorporating credit for our relevant experience in our positions.

After presenting our initial proposals to the employer, they asked a couple of clarifying questions and went back to their caucus room to continue reviewing/discussing. Overall, our team were encouraged that the employer indicated that our proposals were thorough and straightforward. We are eager to get back to the bargaining table and remain hopeful that we will get responses to our proposals from the employer at our session scheduled for October 15.

Join our Contract Action Team Meeting to ask members of our bargaining team questions about our progress so far, and discuss next steps as first contract negotiations continue!

Bargaining Team: Lindsey Gilbert, Family Resource Coordinator; Ronda Duluoz, Infant Mental Health; Megan Rupert, Special Educator

"We're feeling great about the progress so far! Two sessions down, and all of our proposals are on the table!"

— Megan Rupert, Special Educato

Children's Therapy Center - Bargaining Update - Looking ahead

On Wednesday, August 27, our bargaining team met with management for our first official day of negotiations on our first union contract and it was a really productive day!

We began our first bargaining day putting the finishing touches on what we would later present to the employer as our initial contract proposal. Our initial proposal primarily focused on some of the "non-economic" (may not directly relate to money) workplace protections and union rights we hope to win in this process, for instance:

Union Representation: This section establishes union stewards, who are one of us, elected by us, to help in grievance and investigatory matters like Weingarten meetings. A Weingarten meeting is an investigatory meeting conducted by management which could lead to discipline.

Just Cause: We also proposed just cause, which means that there needs to be progressive discipline, rather than the employer having the ability to fire us at-will. They have to document every infraction and we have an opportunity to dispute it if that discipline is unfair or goes against what the contract says.

Labor Management Committee: This is a committee where management has to hear our concerns about working conditions and the administration of the agreement.

Grievance Procedure: Grievance procedures are important to help us enforce our contract, whether related to discipline, scheduling, pay, etc.

After presenting our initial proposals to the employer, we spent the remainder of the day discussing and finalizing proposals to provide to the employer at our next session, including economics (wages, premiums, and more!).

We have scheduled our first Contract Action Team Meeting from 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM, where members of the bargaining team will be available (with the representative Ian Jacobson from the union).

Bargaining Team: Lindsey Gilbert, Mali Olson and Ronda Duluoz

"Day one down!!"