PAGE 4 | December 20, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Union fever spreading at
Cascadia Behavioral Health
Last year, 270 Cascadia workers
joined AFSCME; now 220 more
are on route to joining them
Two more units of mental health
and addiction treatment workers
are headed for a union vote. Ore-
gon AFSCME on Dec. 6 asked
the National Labor Relations
Board to conduct a union elec-
tion among 196 employees who
staff Portland-area residential
treatment facilities for nonprofit
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.
A separate vote is scheduled to
wrap up Dec. 27 for a unit of 23
workers at Rockwood Respite,
another residential treatment fa-
cility run by Cascadia.
Those union drives come af-
ter a union win last year, when
270 Cascadia workers who staff
five outpatient clinics and a mo-
bile mental health crisis re-
sponse team voted to join AF-
SCME. Those workers are still
bargaining a first union contract.
If workers at two more units
vote to unionize, bargaining
would likely take place all to-
gether for a contract to cover all
489 workers.
When their contract is ratified,
they’ll become members of AF-
SCME Local 1790, which cur-
rently represents workers at three
private non-profits: Volunteers of
America, Janus Youth Service,
and Basic Rights Oregon.
AFSCME’s campaign at Cas-
cadia is part of United We Heal,
a larger effort to improve condi-
tions industry-wide in the sector
known as behavioral health,
which includes treatment for
mental health and substance
abuse disorders.
Oregon AFSCME spokesper-
son David Kreisman said work-
ers are turning to the union be-
cause they love their work and
want to be able to stay in long
term.
“In all of these behavioral
health nonprofits, turnover is re-
ally high because of a lack of
benefits and pay that isn’t on par
with a living wage. With high
turnover, if a client is going
through trauma and builds rap-
port and trust with a worker, and
that worker has to move on for
financial reasons, that affects
patient outcomes,” Kreisman
said.
Holiday Greetings
to Organized Labor
With every good wish
for the New Year
P.O. Box 4148
Portland, Oregon 97208
503-282-5581
www.wcearhart.com
Main office:
12029 NE Glenn Widing Rd.
Portland, Oregon 97220
Serving the Employee Benefit Industry for 65 Years.