You Know You Need a Union When...

Kaiser psycho-social clinician and chapter president Susan Lehman remembers what was for her the defining moment: "I was in my office alone with a patient. He was becoming very agitated, and hovering over me, talking about how out of control he felt, and that even the sheriff's deputies couldn't restrain him. I picked up the phone, called the main desk, and asked them to page Dr. Green. Dr Green is our code for assistance. The receptionist responded, 'I'm sorry, there is no Dr. Green on staff.' I was there alone with this guy, with no back up. I assumed he was intoxicated or coming down from an intoxicating substance, (I wasn't about to ask him to pee in the cup at that moment.) Then I realized management doesn't care diddly-squat about my safety. At that point I knew we needed a union."

Before the incident, the issues for Lehman had been mainly money and benefits, but then she realized her personal safety was at stake: "Every month they took away something else from what we were promised when they hired us," she says. "We were one of the very few groups in Kaiser that didn't have a union, and we could see the difference. We could see when the take-aways came, we got hit first. They weren't able to do the same thing to the union workers. So we decided we needed something in writing. We needed a contract." With that motivation, Lehman actively started organizing her fellow workers, and then became a member of the negotiating team, and then the chapter president.

Although Lehman admits the union hasn't been able to solve all the problems of the managed care environment, she says it has given workers a greater say in their jobs. "There is the concept in psychology that people have better mental health in the workplace when they have the illusion of control over their work, and we have more than the illusion--we actually have some control. And it didn't feel like we had any before the union. The biggest help has been the chapter meetings. We work in individual teams at over five different locations. Union meetings are the only place we can all meet together and share information. And now that we have the safety of an organization, we can reach consensus and then speak in unison about our concerns over the changes taking place. Information such as how frequently we can see a client, who we can refer to a group, how long the clinic will be open, how long we can work without getting overtime pay, or safety issues around people coming for detox and whether security guards will be on duty."

Workers were able to establish a more comprehensive security system and make sure everyone was informed about it. After three years of advocating, workers finally got Kaiser management to conduct a security drill.

One of the mental health workers' main concerns is the impact of new state legislation, Assembly Bill 88, that forces health plans to provide treatment for mental health conditions the same way they provide treatment for any health condition. They can't refuse to provide treatment because the condition is mental rather than physical. Workers want to be involved in planning how to deal with the expected increase in the number of people who will be seeking treatment under the new law. They want to make sure there is adequate staffing to meet the needs.

Another controversial area has been the regulations around the use of extended sick leave, guaranteed under Assembly Bill 109. "The new state law allows the use of extended sick leave to care for family members," Lehman explains. "Kaiser gave us a very narrow interpretation of the new law. But we have an avenue to fight their interpretation. I can get a copy of the law from the union, instead of having to rely on second-hand information from the employer, who twists it around."

The union has also opened members' horizons beyond the workplace. "We have become more politically aware," Lehman states. "We follow politics and elections more closely and share information to tie what is happening in the workplace to the broader world. It is a shocker when you realize the employer will only go to where the law forces it to go. So we got involved in Labor to Neighbor, because we understand that our work rights are tied to organizing in the larger community as well."