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HARBORCREEK, PA—After difficult and complicated negotiations, UE Local 642 members, who work at Harborcreek Youth Services (HYS) ratified a one-year contract on June 20. HYS is a behavioral health residential facility for male juveniles. The one-year agreement includes a 2.75 percent wage increase.
Contract negotiations were complicated after HYS lost a license for one of its largest residential units over a sexual assault of clients by a temporary employee earlier this year. The loss of the license resulted in a huge financial hit to HYS’s budget. The agency had proposed a two-year wage freeze and no agency contribution to employees’ 401(k)s unless the agency finances could afford it.
The agency only met twice with the local and, after the last meeting on April 10, refused to give any additional meeting dates before the contract expired on April 30. The local decided to not extend the expired contract like it had agreed to in 2021. The agency had requested a federal mediator be brought in, but the local would not agree to it. (The local remembered the 2021 negotiations when a federal mediator got involved. The involvement of the mediator permitted the agency to not meet directly with the local’s negotiating committee, dragging out those negotiations.)
The local responded by filing an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge alleging bad faith bargaining and began preparing the members for a possible strike. The local’s leaders had one-on-one conversations with the members and circulated a petition, addressed to the agency’s CEO, stating that the members were prepared to take whatever action was needed to win a fair contract (more that 90 percent of the members signed the petition).
The local also sent a 10-day notice of its intent to picket on Friday, May 17 — two days after the only scheduled negotiations. A delegation of the local’s members delivered the petition at the start of the negotiations and sat in during the negotiations. After six hours of back and forth between the parties, the local reached a tentative agreement with the agency.
The 2.75 percent wage increase tracks with the wage progression schedule the local negotiated in 2021. (The local had also negotiated mid-contract wage increases for all classifications in 2023, due to the agency not being able to hire and retain employees.) The agreement also includes a guaranteed 1.5 percent agency contribution to employees’ 401(k)s in addition to the agency’s 401(k) match. There is also no changes to the medical benefits, which has some of the lowest employee contributions of any UE contract ($10 for a single and $31 for family per pay period). The agreement also includes language giving the union access to new hire orientation.
“Despite the closing of one residential unit and loss of agency revenue, the union was able to win a 2.75 percent wage increase and maintain healthcare benefits with no cost increase,” said Brian DeSanto, Local 642 vice president and a member of the local’s negotiating committee.
In addition to DeSanto, the Local 642 negotiating committee included President Jason Williams, Recording Secretary Mike Hardner, Chief Steward Mary Jo Stiller, and Maintenance Steward Roy Patton. They were assisted by International Representative John Thompson and UE Research Director Karl Zimmerman
