Illinois - Mental Health Workers Win 3-Year Battle

WALKING THE LINE | Employees of Heartland Human Services in Effingham, Ill., are joined in their strike last year by Richard Trumka, then secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO. Trumka was elected AFL-CIO president this September.

WALKING THE LINE | Employees of Heartland Human Services in Effingham, Ill., are joined in their strike last year by Richard Trumka, then secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO. Trumka was elected AFL-CIO president this September.

Photo Credit: Council 31

Effingham, Illinois

Approximately 30 employees of Heartland Human Services in Effingham ratified a contract with management this summer that ends one of the nation’s longest labor disputes.

The employees, who provide residential and outpatient mental health treatment at the state-funded private, non-profit center, returned to work after a one-year strike that they decided to end, followed by a one-year lockout. “They always promised to fight one day longer than necessary to win fair treatment and respect for the important work they do,” says Council 31 Exec. Director Henry Bayer, also an AFSCME International vice president. “Their solidarity and dedication is a tremendous inspiration to us all.”

After forming a union with Council 31 in February 2006, representatives of Local 3491 launched what became a three-year struggle. First, there were contentious negotiations marked by unfair treatment and repeated delays from management. Then, in July 2007, the workers went on a strike that lasted a full year.

Anna Beck, a counselor case manager and a member of the contract negotiating committee at the time, says the workers decided to end their strike and fight for a new contract from the inside, but management refused to let them return to work.

Eventually the state intervened after Council 31 persisted in pointing out that the government was paying the agency for services that weren’t being provided. The agency fired its executive director and proceeded, finally, to negotiate in good faith.

That bargaining culminated this summer in the ratification of a two-year contract that grants employees unprecedented rights previously denied them, plus they also won substantial salary increases in the first year of the contract, and a 2.5 percent increase in year two.