Follow-up

Getting ready to strike

by Kristen Lombardi

Social workers and clinicians at the Jamaica Plain-based Family Services Association of Greater Boston (FSGB) never thought it would be easy to walk off the job (see "Mental Hell," News and Features, August 25). They must do without an income. They must come to grips with the fact that striking disrupts care for their clients -- thousands of low-income residents from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain.

But last week, FSGB workers who are set to halt work this month realized just how down-and-dirty striking can be. On August 25, director Randal Rucker penned a memo telling staff of FSGB's decision that "in order to ensure continuity of care for consumers, [workers] will be permanently replaced if they strike." Those who don't, he added, can avoid pickets at a second office the agency will open.

Workers say the memo is a threat, proving that Rucker would rather precipitate a strike than settle the dispute. "This is like declaring war on labor," says Brian Wilder of Service Employees International Union Local 285, which represents the workers.

Contract negotiations reached a stalemate over several key issues. Workers are angered by the agency's proposals to require employees to work nights and weekends, to take back the prized seniority raise, and to create "unrealistic" productivity standards that could be used to fire staff.

Without compromise, workers say, they'll be forced to walk. They cannot accept working all day, every day. Nor can they relinquish their three percent seniority raises while managers enjoy 12 percent increases.

Besides, they say, FSGB isn't in dire financial shape. It has a $9 million budget and a $23 million endowment -- hefty sums compared to the $16,000 per year needed for seniority raises. That's why workers suspect the agency is simply trying to bust the union.

Rucker dismisses the allegation. "This is not about union-busting," he says. He declined comment on the dispute, but stresses that FSGB will take "whatever steps necessary" to provide services for its clients.

Still, the response hardly calms workers. They've begun a counterattack, writing politicians, calling donors -- all in an attempt to pressure FSGB to back down. "If the agency doesn't straighten up," Wilder says, "we hope funders will strip its funding."

Officially, however, both workers and the agency hold out hope that negotiations will be saved, particularly in light of their common ground. As Rucker puts it, "Workers and providers are both dealing with a system that's chronically underfunded."