Mental health workers plan 3-day strike

A lead residential recovery specialist at a behavioral health clinic in New London is joining dozens of colleagues Sunday morning in a strike against low wages and unsafe staffing conditions.

Kwan Jenkins, 44, has worked with Sound Community Services for three years now. He has never received a raise.

“I’ve been at the same rate since I started,” he said, at less than $15.40 an hour.

Workers have other complaints as well. They say they can’t afford health insurance and don’t have retirement plans. Management does not discipline abusive clients and instead recycles them through different programs, he said.

Union employees for Sound Community Services are going on strike starting Sunday morning for increased wages, benefits and improved staffing conditions. A separate strike is also scheduled at Gilead Community Services in Middletown starting May 5. Both strikes will be limited to three days, according to the District 1199 Service Employees International Union.

But the workers’ frustration doesn’t just lie with their employers. These mental health workers are also calling on the state to provide an additional 8 percent increase in funding to the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services this legislative session. This would help fund their demands for fair wages, benefits and adequate staffing, they said.

“The 8 percent will go a long way towards rectifying the low standards in the mental health field and help the workers achieve higher wages in their contracts,” said Kindra Fontes-May, an elected organizer with the 1199 union. Workers will be “continually advocating” for this increase in the next two weeks, Fontes-May said.

Workers’ wages at Sound and Gilead community centers range from $15 to $18 an hour. The majority of Sound workers make $15.37 an hour, while most Gilead workers make $15.06 an hour, according to the union.

The union has proposed, using a combination of additional state funding and compensation from the employer, a pathway to $20 an hour by increasing the minimum rates. The proposal also creates “seniority step increases” with the opportunity to negotiate higher wages in the future, the union said.

Gino DeMaio, the CEO of Community Sound Services, said this just isn’t affordable for his nonprofit. DeMaio said the demands would cost about $1.2 million a year, and the organization only received $323,000 more from cost-of-living adjustments.

“It would essentially put us out of business,” he told

Hearst Connecticut Media on Friday. The union’s demands, and what the organization can give, are “light years apart,” he said.

“We’ve only been given so much money from appropriations from the budget,” he added.

Sound has countered with a $1.78 raise per person, an increase in contributions to health care costs and automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, and the nonprofit would match what it could. DeMaio said he has not received an answer.

Gilead management has proposed wage increases above the 4 percent offered to state employees Friday.

Though Fontes-May said Gilead’s counter is a good start, “the proposal is limited in what it can achieve and is hindered by the fact that it prevents workers from negotiating additional increases in the future.”

“Inflation, gas, and rent go up every year, but wages in the mental health field have historically remained stagnant,” she said. “The ability for workers to fight for more is key to raising standards across the state and lifting workers out of poverty.”

Dan Osborne, the CEO of Gilead Community Services, also attributed state funding as an issue.

“Over the past 15 years, however, we have only received a single 1 percent increase from the state,” he said in a statement. “As a result, we have not been able to provide our staff with the regular increases that they deserve.”

The strike at Sound Community Services in New London begins Sunday at 6 a.m. Sound workers are set to resume negotiations Wednesday after the three-day strike. Gilead workers are set to resume negotiations also after their strike the week of May 1. If they don’t reach agreements, workers can send another strike notice or take further action.