Apr. 20—NEW LONDON — Unionized workers with Sound Community Services, a nonprofit serving people facing mental and behavioral health conditions and addiction, picketed outside Sound on Tuesday afternoon ahead of a planned three-day strike set to begin at 6 a.m. Sunday.
Sound employees with SEIU District 1199 New England began strike authorization votes last month, and organizer Kindra Fontes-May said 100% of those voting were in favor. She said most of the 73-member bargaining unit voted, and that it is up to the workers whether they would want to extend the strike.
The strike would be held outside Sound's main office at 21 Montauk Ave., where the picket line was held Tuesday, she said.
Workers are pushing for wage increases, more affordable health insurance, a retirement contribution from Sound and better staffing conditions, as workers are being threatened and attacked by clients.
Sound CEO Gino DeMaio said for the strike, "we have a full schedule of experienced, nonunion workers, managers, who have all agreed to get onboard, and we've taken shifts" and "there will be no effect on any of the programs," but he hopes it doesn't come to that.
"I'm disappointed that this is actually happening," he said. "I think that they really should be going to the state legislature and talking to them."
The union is calling on the state to approve an additional 8% increase in funding for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to help fund their demands. The state previously allocated a 4% increase in funds for wages and benefits.
"Over the last several decades, state leaders have outsourced public mental health work to nonprofits like Gilead and Sound with the pretext of cutting costs," District 1199 President Rob Baril in a news release. "These services rely on state funding, which has been stagnant for years."
Gilead Community Services in Middletown has a strike deadline of May 5 at 6 a.m.
Begging to feel supported
Jamese "Jay" Tatum said she started at Sound in 2014 as a recovery specialist and was promoted to residential case manager, making $17.82 an hour. She said she had to fight just to get a 25-cent raise when she was promoted.
She said she loves what she does and the people she serves, but she also has faced physical and verbal abuse — such as a client pushing her — and said she doesn't feel supported.
"We deserve more fairness," said Tatum, 33. "Some damn respect. And we want to feel supported. That's my biggest thing, I want to feel supported."