HowardCenter workers speak about wages, work conditions
From Burlington Free Press
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By Elizabeth Murray
Free Press Staff Writer
June 12, 2014
Allison Segar has worked at the HowardCenter for 16 years, and said she is paid less now than she was 17 years ago when she immigrated to America from England.
Segar, who has 30 years of experience as a social worker, said she often has to keep the heat in her house lower than she would like in the wintertime to save money. She and her three children have to wear layers of clothing inside their home in the winter, she said.
Segar’s colleague, Heather Lamonda, who is a 10-year HowardCenter employee, said it has gotten so bad for her that she could not afford a new pair of sneakers this year. At 31 years old, she admitted that her parents had to buy them for her.
However, this has not stopped employees from continuing to work at the HowardCenter, a career Segar said was her “calling” during a public hearing on Wednesday night at Burlington’s City Hall.
“I love working with people, and I really see my life as being dedicated to people to making their lives better and to help people have opportunities and not have to struggle as much as they do,” Segar said.
Unionized HowardCenter employees voiced concerns over wages, safety and employee retention at Wednesday’s hearing, which drew a full house of HowardCenter colleagues, members of other unions and Burlington residents. The Vermont Workers Center helped organize the event.
The unionized employees are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 93, and they are currently involved in collective bargaining with HowardCenter management for a new contract that would take effect July 1. The HowardCenter is a nonprofit and healthcare provider that serves more than 15,000 individuals and families each year.
HowardCenter Executive Director Todd Centybear said formal contract negotiations began April 15, and the two sides have had five sessions to date, the most recent one on Tuesday.
According to the union, the HowardCenter has failed to pass along to employees funds that were to be appropriated through a bill passed by the Vermont State Legislature.
This bill included an increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates to providers such as the HowardCenter, effective Nov. 1, 2013 — specifically 3 percent for HowardCenter employees.
In its collective bargaining session for a new contract in 2012, the union negotiated a 1.6 percent compensation increase on base salaries, according to papers filed in the court by the HowardCenter. The union argues that the 3 percent increase was supposed to be in addition to the 1.6 percent salary increase.
Boston, Mass.-based Council 93 spokesman Jim Durkin said the 3 percent increase should affect more than 600 direct care providers who he said are paid an average of $13 per hour. However, the union said, the increase never happened and employees were never given their compensation.
The AFSCME Local 1674 filed in March a lawsuit in the civil division of Vermont Superior Court in Burlington in an effort to compel the HowardCenter to pay the workers what they were entitled to, according to the union.
Centybear told the Burlington Free Press on Wednesday that workers had received the funds, which worked out to about 2 percent since the legislation did not go into effect until four months into the HowardCenter’s fiscal year. However, he said he had understood the Medicaid reimbursement as funds that could be used toward funding the 1.6 percent salary increase, and not as another additional compensation.
HowardCenter worker Connie Norona, who works at the Chittenden Clinic, said Wednesday that she sees addiction treatment working — but it would work better if clients had one consistent counselor versus several in the course of treatment.
Norona, the longest serving counselor in the clinic, said retention would be made possible if employees were offered better wages.
“My clients say to me, ‘Connie, I am so glad that I have you because I do not have to change counselors four or five times during my treatment, and I can settle in and I can be safe and I can grow without having to repeat my story every time I have to meet a new person,’” Norona said.
Centybear said he “wholly embraces and supports” working to raise employee wages, as does the HowardCenter board.
“Our services are about people, and our ability to recruit and retain people are key,” Centybear said.
Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.