Mental Health Caregivers Strike for Better Patient Care at Telecare facilities in San Leandro and Oakland

Telecare Corporation diverts county funding out of direct services and into corporate accounts; workers strike for consistent patient care, a pension, and a living wage.

When: Monday, June 20, 2005, 11 a.m.

Where: Villa Fairmont Mental Health Rehabilitation Center

San Leandro, CA- Beginning Monday, June 20, over a hundred employees of the for-profit Telecare Corporation will embark on a four-day strike for better patient care at Telecare’s Gladman Mental Health Rehabilitation Center in Oakland and Villa Fairmont Mental Health Rehabilitation Center in San Leandro. Telecare receives Contra Costa, Alameda, Marin, and San Mateo county dollars to provide inpatient mental health services for Medicare and Medicaid eligible clients at the two facilities. However, Telecare’s under-investment in direct patient services allowed them to reap $6,335,000 in profits between 2001 and 2004. Mental health caregivers believe Telecare should use public funding responsibly to support consistently staffed units, pension benefits, and a living wage for workers.

"It is a very stressful job and the units are always dangerously chaotic because of the constant staff turnover resulting from our poverty wages," said Edgar Roach, a Mental Health Worker who has been employed at the Villa Fairmont facility for 3 years. "Telecare needs to put their money where the clients are. When you get tax dollars they should go directly into client care, not our CEO’s bank account."

The Gladman and Villa Fairmont facilities serve severely mental ill, drug addicted, and developmentally disabled clients who require intensive care from consistent and seasoned staff. However, staff turnover is high due to wages and benefits that are far below the industry standard and do not include even a basic pension. In the past 15 years, wages for Mental Health Workers at Telecare have risen a meager three dollars to the current starting pay of $9.65 per hour.

"I have worked here for 15 years and have no pension or retirement security," said Gladman Mental Health Technician, Richard Dean. "I am worried about what is going to happen to me after I retire from years of caring for the clients."

In 2004, Telecare corporation received $32,253,017 in Alameda county contract dollars, an increase of 20% since 2002. Telecare kept $1,107,904 in net income from Villa Fairmont and Gladman as profit in 2004, rather than reinvesting it into caregivers on the front line.

Mental health caregivers have worked with out a contract since September 2004, when management refused to negotiate a living wage. Caregivers believe their patients deserve the best care possible, but cannot maintain high quality care standards while staff turnover continues to escalate. Community leaders and mental health advocates will join caregivers on the picket line to tell Telecare to put taxpayer dollars back where they belong: in quality patient care.

SEIU United Healthcare Workers—West, with more than 140,000 members, is the largest and most powerful healthcare union in the Western U.S. We represent every type of healthcare worker, including nursing, professional, technical and service classifications. Our mission is to achieve high quality healthcare for all. ###