Rogers Behavioral Health has recently been in the news for firing three employees who wanted to form a union.
Since then, there has been a fight within the company over other employees wanting a union, but higher management doesn’t want unionization.
So, what’s been happening since this story was introduced at the end of February? Has the company come around to the idea of a union? Are employees getting what they want?
We dive deeper into this case and wonder about the bigger picture: Why is Rogers fighting the employees’ efforts to form a union?
UWM Post spoke with unnamed Rogers’ employees about the work environment and the union. These employees chose to remain anonymous.
How did we get here?
To catch everyone up, back on February 12, there was a press release that at the West Allis Rogers location, three employees were fired for wanting to form a union. The reason they were fired was due to “going against their contract terms,” as it was written in their contracts that they were not allowed to help form a union.
“This is an outrageous and illegal act of retaliation that will leave patients with even fewer direct caregivers,” said Stephani Lohman, who is a nurse practitioner and one of the fired workers.
The main reason for wanting to form the union is to help improve and secure patient care and reverse some changes that came in from higher-ups in the months and years leading up to this.
At the time of the press release, about 100 employees of the Rogers company had agreed to unionize, like they have out in California and Philadelphia, and join the NUHW (National Union of Healthcare Workers).
“Rogers has been on the leading edge when it comes to improving mental health services and was on a way to becoming a much better place to give and receive care,” said NUHW president Emeritus Sal Rosselli, “and now Rogers is the poster child for illegal relations against workers in its home state”.
Presently, workers are saying that polices have changed. According to Rogers’ employees, workers would be called off work due to client count, but that led to higher patient volume on other staff. The company has lifted the caps on caseloads, which makes caregivers responsible for more patients.
From there, Rogers has been out of the news on this topic, but staff are still speaking out for the union to come, even as Rogers is sticking to their ground on no union.
What’s been happening with the workers still at Rogers
At the West Allis location, where this all started, employees are still fighting to gain the union along with the other Wisconsin locations.
According to employees, Rogers has been holding weekly meetings and making some workers attend while telling others that the meeting is an “option.”
Rogers is bringing in people (employees are calling union busters), who are “…informing and educating people on what the union wants and what the union means.” Employees believe this is just to tell them that the union is “bad” and “to give Rogers more time to fix the issues at hand.”
The employees said that Rogers is informing staff that “certain people will have a bigger voice in a union than others,” which, depending on how the contracts are written, is not fully true.
One employee said, “The company is the one who put us in this situation in the first place and hasn’t truly done anything to fix things. We still see higher caseloads, and all they are doing is telling us that the union is bad.”
“These people come in, bringing food to bribe us, and still won’t fix the issues we addressed back in February. I feel like they are not listening to the workers, and the higher-ups just don’t care,” says another worker.
Many workers agreed that Rogers is not listening to them nor addressing their concerns. Higher-ups keep telling their employees to “give them time,” but it seems like the time has run out for them.
From another press release, therapist T’anna Holst said, “Our only goal in forming a union is to improve care to patients, and the only way we can do that is to have a real voice in the care we provide”.
The employees have received overwhelming support from other unions in the area, calling on Rogers to reinstate the workers and recognize the union the workers want.
Where do they go from here?
As workers are fighting for their union, many are thinking about what the next steps are in their own lives. One thought that’s been floating around with some employees is, “Will I stay if the union doesn’t form?”
The short answer for some is no, they won’t stay. The union is the make-or-break point for many of the current employees at Rogers.
One worker said, ” If they are doing this kind of work now, what will they do if the union doesn’t form? How much voice will they have with my patient care and caseload?”
Others, because they love their job and people, are debating about staying and trying to make the work environment better, but fear that the company will let them go because of their viewpoints, and Wisconsin is an “at will” firing state.
UWM Post will watch this story closely and update this article when new information comes forth.