Brien Center Employees Protest Contract Wage Offer
 Brien Center employees stand outside the North Adams location on Monday demanding more pay in contract negotiations. The 90-year-old agency provides mental health and other support services to county residents. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Brien Center employees held information picketing against management negotiations they say call for minimal salary and health care increases.
Clinicians and direct care staff, who provide mental health services for children and adults throughout Berkshire County, assembled outside of the Brien Center locations in Pittsfield and North Adams Monday to advocate for better wage.
Local 509 Service Employees International Union representative John Grossman said the Brien Center workers play a vital role in the community and many of them, who hold bachelor's and master's degrees, make an average of $13 an hour.
"More than half of these people make less than $15 an hour providing these types of services and the company offers raises that average 19 cents per hour for people and they increased their health insurance cost," Grossman said. "So we are pretty upset about that."
Grossman said management's final offer to SEIU was a 1.5 percent limit on wage increases.
Olivia Bolner, who works in a residential program where she provides care to severely mentally ill adults, said the small wage increases provides no incentive for employees to stay.
"We have some employees that have been here over 20 years and they are making the same exact pay as I do and I have only been here for like two years," Bolner said. "That doesn't make us want to stay."
A statement from Brien Center CEO Christine Macbeth said the 1.5 percent increase has been proposed for a year because the Brien Center may be in a stronger position next year. The agency employs about 450 people.
She said the proposed union increase is 5 percent, which over three years would cost the agency more than $3 million.
"We want to be as fair as we can with our employees given the financial realities that we face," Macbeth said.
Picketer Rick Berger, who teaches a drug and alcohol abuse counselor certificate program, said Brien Center employees are paid below the poverty level. He said this discourages people from entering a field where much help is needed.
"People that go into these positions are literally paid below the poverty level, and if they have a family it's totally unsustainable," Berger said. "So if we are serious about doing anything about chemical dependency issues it is absolutely essential that we are not having clinical workers paid at the starvation level."
Meagan Parker, who works with mentally ill and at-risk children and adolescents, said because of the low salaries a high turnover rate amongst the Brien Center workers is particularly troubling.
"We have people that are just leaving continually. We have one child and adolescent clinician left here because they have all decided to leave and go elsewhere," Parker said. "Then we can't offer child and adolescent services for the mentally ill."
She said her team is overworked and there is a great need for the services they provide in Berkshire County. She said at times there is a six-month waiting list for some of the programs and if this downward salary trend continues, many of the services will disappear altogether.
"The whole idea behind our services is to get the children in the community, in their homes, and keep them where they need to be so leaving them untreated, without therapy, and without medication would be the next possibility," she said. "They will end up being hospitalized."
Berger said this would be a similar case for the dependency programs the Brien Center offers.
"Considering the level of the opioid epidemic the services of the Brien center are absolutely essential," Berger said. "It’s going to continue to explode."
Along with minimal salary increases, the union says the Brien Center has proposed to increase workers' health-care premium costs by up to 34.5 percent. Brien Center employee Karen Pessolano said many employees have been forced to drop the insurance because they cannot afford it.
"We feel that we deserve a raise, but they are only willing to give us 1.5 percent and the health insurance is so high that many of my my coworkers had to call and cancel," Pessolano said. "A lot of our clients tell us that they wouldn't know where they would be without us, and we all love our jobs we just want enough money so we can literally survive."
The union says management's final offer also calls for an increase in productivity requirements for intensive-care coordination workers.
Collective bargaining has been ongoing since last September. The center said its priority is keeping people safe and supporting their choices throughout their treatment and recovery.
"Our employees are dedicated and I know they will continue to provide quality care to those we serve throughout Berkshire County," Macbeth said.
Grossman said the offer is unacceptable and that a fairer contract must be negotiated.
"We will do whatever it takes if this doesn't do it," he said. "We will have to figure out what does and do whatever we have to do."
Tags: Brien Center, contract negotiations, health & wellness, mental health, unions,
