Victory at Last! Beverly Farm Workers Prevail
GODFREY, ILLINOIS
Five years of perseverance, including a four-month strike, finally paid off in November for 350 employees of Beverly Farm, the state’s largest private residential facility for developmentally disabled adults.
The employees, members of AFSCME Local 3784 (Council 31), returned to work with a two-year contract that includes a wage hike averaging 11 percent in the first year, a union shop, a grievance procedure, a wage re-opener on Sept. 1, 2000, improved vacation and sick leave, and other benefits.
“We won on every issue we were fighting for,” Lou Rounds, a group leader at Beverly Farm, declared at a Nov. 21 press conference that was interrupted by jubilant workers chanting, “We are AFSCME, mighty, mighty AFSCME.”
The Beverly Farm Foundation, which governs the state-supported facility, had flatly refused worker demands for a 65-cent-an-hour wage hike, instead offering only 35 cents above wages that were as low as $5.35 an hour. But with the settlement the workers won the full 65 cents.
“This is the most ideological, anti-union employer that we have ever encountered,” says Council 31 Exec. Director and International Vice Pres. Henry Bayer. “But thanks to the tenacity of the strikers and the solidarity of other AFSCME locals, the union prevailed.”
The union had sought a contract with Beverly Farm ever since workers overwhelmingly voted in June 1994 for AFSCME to be their bargaining agent. Negotiations continued until July 1995, when the employer presented its “final” but inadequate offer, which the union quickly rejected. The employer then withdrew its recognition of the union until the National Labor Relations Board and a federal appellate court declared their action illegal.
Negotiations resumed in May 1998. Meanwhile, AFSCME continued to sign up newly hired employees.
On July 9, 1999, Beverly Farm workers represented by Council 31 went on strike. Shortly thereafter, the employer notified AFSCME that it was, once again, withdrawing recognition of the union.
Local politicians, community leaders and clergy came out in support of the workers. The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally on Aug. 26.
Even so, it wasn’t easy on the picket line. “Not only did they have a financial burden with their families, but it was like suffering a loss from the residents they had established relations with,” says Council 31 Staff Rep. Peggy Zimmerman. “That’s one thing you heard through the picket line: ‘I want to see my guys,’ or ‘I want to see my girls.’”
The union kept up the pressure on the employer. “We filed Department of Labor complaints,” relates Buddy Maupin, lead negotiator for the workers and a Council 31 regional director. “We shut them off from unemployment and public aid referrals for jobs. We put picketers outside the temp agencies hired to provide scabs. We had different pension funds pressuring the companies that were providing scabs. We filed a number of public health complaints and we had state legislators in press conferences demanding the home be put in receivership and the director be fired.”
Finally forced back to the bargaining table in November after the NLRB filed contempt charges with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago — seeking daily fines and imprisonment of Beverly Farm administrators for illegally withdrawing recognition of the union — the employer conceded to the strikers’ demands.
On Nov. 21, 94 percent of the nearly 200 employees who voted approved the contract and returned to work, ending the four-month strike.
“I feel like a kid at Christmastime,” says Valerie Mitchell, who had been on the battle line since the strike began. “It’s the excitement of running downstairs to see what’s under the tree.”
“We knew if we stuck together, we had the power to make Beverly Farm better for the workers, the residents and the community,” says Dan Crockett, who was on the union bargaining committee.
By Clyde Weiss
