Follow-up

Back to work

by Kristen Lombardi

Sue Costello says that all good fights are won at a price, and she should know. Costello is one of 25 social workers at the Jamaica Plain-based Family Services of Greater Boston (FSGB) who returned to their old jobs last week after a fierce 10-week strike. Suffice it to say, she's experienced a rather bittersweet reunion.

"The climate here has been tense," she explains. "People are angry, people are frustrated. I suppose it's to be expected."

Costello and her fellow striking workers came back to FSGB last week after unanimously ratifying a new three-year contract on November 22. For them, the agreement looks like a solid victory. Social workers succeeded in defeating nearly all the FSGB proposals in contention -- such as the agency's plans to create arbitrary productivity standards, require employees to work weekends, and take back the prized seniority raise (see "Mental Hell," News and Features, August 25).

Perhaps an even bigger achievement is that the FSGB workers managed to land a favorable contract at all. After all, they faced threats of being permanently replaced. They endured two months without pay. They watched the agency spend as much as $200,000 on security and shuttle buses during the strike while refusing to meet them at the bargaining table.

As Brian Wilder, the representative for Service Employees International Union Local 285, puts it, "It's amazing we have an agreement, given the well-financed attempts to destroy our group."

Now that workers have returned to Heath Street, they intend to put the mess of the past behind them and get on with the business of taking care of people. Others may also be ready to forgive and forget. FSGB director Randal Rucker could not be reached before press time, but social workers are heartened by what they call his conciliatory tone in recent staff meetings.

"He sets the mood at this agency," Costello says, "and it's promising to find him talking of looking ahead, too. Now is the time to heal."