UMass, Foster Care Workers Join

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

As we go to press, it has been announced that approximately 2,300 workers at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center here, have voted for representation by AFSCME. It is the largest labor victory in the state since AFSCME successfully organized workers at Harvard in 1988.

The new unit, made up largely of women, includes the hospital's secretaries, nursing assistants, surgical technicians, diet assistants, research technicians, admitting personnel and mental health counselors. A full report on the victory will be featured in the next Public Employee.

And in New York...

Earlier in the summer, more than 500 employees of Little Flower Children Services, one of the largest foster care and adoption agencies in the New York City metropolitan area, voted for representation by AFSCME District Council 1707. They are social workers, caseworkers, maintenance, transportation and clerical employees.

"I'm quite proud of the organizing team and other members of the staff who volunteered their time to ensure the success of this campaign," says DC 1707 Exec. Director Josephine LeBeau. "We will do everything in our power to have thorough negotiations."

LeBeau says that management fought hard to prevent unionization, firing three union activists and awarding a pay raise in a last-ditch effort to convince workers that management was on their side. "In April, management had told the workers they had no funding for any raises, but somehow they found the money, after the election was announced," she says.

The union is planning to hold large orientation meetings with the workers this fall to congratulate, inform and query them about their contractual demands.