ITHACA, N.Y. — Workers at Family and Children’s Services of Ithaca overwhelmingly voted to unionize Tuesday evening.
Mental healthcare providers and support staff voted 22-5 in favor of the union during a National Labor Relations Board election. Now those workers can begin the process of negotiating a labor contract with management.
The union represents most non-managerial staff at the non-profit mental health organization including clinicians, a nurse practitioner, clinical administrative coordinators and other support staff. At present, the bargaining unit is set to number a little under 30 workers.
Workers at Family Children’s Services affiliated with the Communication Workers of America, which also represents nurses at Cayuga Medical Center and several affiliated clinics.
Union organizer and mental health clinician Severine Corylus said she was one of the first of her coworkers to cast a ballot. There was a palpable excitement in the room, she said.
“There was a giddiness, maybe a surrealness like, ‘Oh, this is actually happening,’” Corylus said. “And now there’s like an official federal agency that’s posted up shop in the building to do this very official legal process.”
Corylus said the margins in the election closely mirrored the breakdown of workers who had previously signed union authorization cards. Workers at the non-profit announced last month that they had collected signed cards from a “supermajority” of eligible coworkers.
“We kept the same margin of support from the time we went public to now, which I think speaks to how confident staff feel in their positions on this,” Corylus said.
The nonprofit mental health provider has undergone several major changes in the past year in order to remain financially stable in the face of changing federal funding and Medicaid reimbursement rates. Last spring, Family and Children’s Services ended all its auxiliary programs, including one serving unhoused youth.
Corylus and other organizers said they want a seat at the table when it comes to such major decisions in the future.
“None of us wants the agency to close. All of us are in agreement that the work of Family and Children’s is of critical importance to the community and we believe that the staff have a really valuable perspective of how we can manage what’s a challenging time for the organization.”
Corylus said that improving employee retention, for instance, could help Family and Children’s avoid the added cost of hiring and training new staff.
In an emailed statement, Family and Children’s Services Executive Director Alecia Sundsmo said she and the organization’s board of directors “recognize the importance of each staff member having their voice heard in this process.”
“The organization will proceed with collective bargaining and we look forward to working together to come to a mutually agreeable outcome,” Sundsmo said. “As always, we remain committed to providing accessible mental health services to our community.”
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