Direct Care Professionals, Nurses, and Service Workers at the Ulster-Greene ARC (UGARC) voted to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) supervised election on Friday, August 7.  Over 600 employees of the Lower Hudson not-for-profit agency were eligible to cast their vote Friday at polling places in Kingston, Ellenville, and Catskill.  With two-thirds of those eligible participating, SEIU received approximately 80% of the vote, a solid mandate for Local 200United which represents more private human service agency workers than any other union in Upstate New York. In total, the Local represents 13,000 workers in human services, the public sector, education, and building services in 52 Upstate counties.

Local 200United members at UGARC include Registered Nurses and LPNs, and all employees in the transportation, maintenance, and service coordination departments.  However, the largest group in the union is made up of Direct Support Professionals who provide services to consumers with intellectual and other developmental disabilities in the agency’s residential homes, respite, day hab, day treatment, pilot industries, and in-home programs.

The union campaign to win Friday’s election consisted of approximately eight weeks of intensive grass roots outreach by a core group of fifty UGARC workers.  “This was an extraordinary team effort,” said Local 200United’s statewide President Jerry Dennis.  “These activists are all to be congratulated on their spirit and dedication in bringing this tough campaign to a victorious conclusion.”

Union bargaining representative Michael Lonigro, Secretary Treasurer of Local 200United, also congratulated ARC workers on bringing home a victory while encouraging the membership to stay focused as they move immediately into contract bargaining with agency management.  “Our members mobilized the entire workforce to fight and win this significant organizing victory and they will use that same structure and spirit to continue moving forward, building even more momentum to win significant improvements through contract bargaining,” said Lonigro.  “Management knows we are united.  They know we are serious.”

Unfortunately the agency, whose $40 million annual budget is almost entirely taxpayer funded, chose to fight their employees’ campaign to join SEIU by hiring one of the oldest and largest union avoidance law firms in the nation.  Their expensive investment in union busters failed.

At the same time, ARC management knew that Local 200United can be a significant ally in securing resources for agencies that employ her members.  Just last week, NY State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill announced that, through a collaborative effort between SEIU Local 200United and Ulster Greene ARC management, he had secured funding for workforce recruitment and retention.  President Dennis points out that the goal of every Local 200United worker in the Human Services is “to provide our members with the strongest possible voice in their everyday challenges to provide a better way of life for their families and, certainly, for the consumers they are privileged to serve.