More than 7,500 community-based support service providers for people with developmental disabilities have voted overwhelmingly to join SEIU Local 503.
"This is great news for clients, their families and the 7,500 workers who provide this support," SEIU Local 503 Executive Director Heather Conroy said after the State Employment Relations Board confirmed that more than 70% of providers voting by mail ballot chose union representation.
"It gives service providers an effective voice. Along with clients and their families, these providers will help keep Oregon at the forefront of efforts to enable individuals with developmental disabilities to reach their full potential."
The newly organized workers--a majority provide support for adults with developmental disabilities, but some also work with clients who have mental health issues and still others with medically fragile children--represent the largest single influx of union members in Oregon in a decade.
Members of the new unit expressed joy after votes were tallied in Salem Thursday.
"I'm so pleased about the outcome of the vote," said Lana Nelson of Sutherlin, who cares for a 27-year-old daughter with Down's syndrome. "Belonging to a union creates a community where we can share experiences and better resolve issues facing our clients."
Carol Conlon, who cares for an adult son with autism in Grants Pass, campaigned actively for the union.
"This is a special day for care givers and the clients we serve." Conlon said. "It puts us on the road to protecting the very lives of these disabled persons, who have been segregated and discriminated against by virtue of their type of disability--and improving how we treat their caregivers.
"I never dreamt that fighting for my son's civil rights for the last 11 years would result in forming a union," she added. "Through SEIU we are gaining a collective voice and through that voice we can win for disabled clients the right to adequate care in an environment of their choice. In the same respect, it's time we are acknowledged as real care givers doing real work."
Conlon and other service providers tell their stories at www.dignityoregon.org, a gathering place on the web for those who led the effort to organize.
The newly represented service providers will be eligible to start bargaining for their initial contract with the Oregon Home Care Commission later this month when the election is certified by ERB. They join 10,000 in-home care workers for seniors and people with physical disabilities who became part of SEIU after a statewide ballot initiative in 2000 gave them collective bargaining rights.
That year the state of Oregon entered into "the Staley Agreement," settling a federal class action lawsuit filed by advocates on behalf of Medicaid-eligible adults with developmental disabilities who had spent years on long wait lists for services.
The 7,500 support service providers now represented by SEIU Local 503 emerged from that agreement as primary support service providers. A state law passed in 2009 gave them the right to organize. With the Staley agreement's guarantees set to sunset, the Legislature is expected to pass House Bill 2600 codifying the state's commitment to meet the needs of people with developmental disabilities.
