Houston Service Workers' Clinic Provides Model for Labor-Business Cooperation in Other Cities

In a city where one in three residents live without health care, the unveiling of a new clinic in Houston that will offer low-cost, quality care to over 5,300 of the area's commercial office janitors is an innovative step in the right direction.

The new Houston Service Workers' Clinic isa joint project resulting from a groundbreaking labor-business partnership between SEIU janitors and business and community leaders to make health care more accessible for low-wage workers. Launching in early February 2009, the clinic could also provide a model for other cities also struggling with a growing number of uninsured.

The Houston Business Journal provides a few more details on the clinic:

"The Houston Service Workers Clinic will provide primary health care for service workers at a cost to them of just $20 a month, with their employers kicking in $185 a month per worker to cover 100 percent of the workers' treatment."

Healthcare coverage for $205 a month per worker is a cost equivalent to less than one-third of a penny per square foot of rental space in Houston's downtown buildings (where SEIU janitors work every day). The clinic will be staffed by physicians and other health professionals from Baylor College of Medicine, and Cigna Healthcare will provide insurance coverage for medical care beyond what the clinic will offer.

The unveiling of this clinic comes as thousands of Houston janitors celebrate the anniversary of the 2006 month-long strike that put a human face on the city's healthcare crisis. The agreement reached at the end of the month-long strike increased hourly wages for the janitors represented by SEIU, many of whom had been earning as little as $20 a day without benefits. In addition, the five major cleaning contractors involved agreed to offer their employees longer hours, paid holidays, vacation time and health insurance, starting in 2009.

"Two years ago I stood beside the Mayor and told the world 'Houston won big,'" said Mercedes Herrera, a Houston janitor who helped lead the workers' historic strike. "Today we celebrate another victory for Houston families as we open our health care clinic."