Mental Health Center Strike Enters 2nd Week

A strike at East Los Angeles’ largest mental health facility entered its second week Friday as the management struggled to keep the center open by mobilizing supervisory staff and beginning to hire replacement workers.

The negotiations impasse at El Centro Human Services Corp.--a private, nonprofit agency that serves up to 150 patients per day--centers on management-proposed cutbacks in workers’ salaries and benefits. Management representatives contend that the cutbacks are necessary to keep the agency afloat in a time of shrinking mental health funding.

But about 65 striking workers--nearly the entire professional staff of therapists, social workers and nurses, as well as clerical support staff, at the center--remain unconvinced.

“We don’t deny they have a tight budget,” said Brian Lawler of the Service Employees International Union, Local 535, which represents the striking workers. “But they have not convinced the employees that the cuts they have proposed are necessary.”

The center’s supervisory staff, including about 28 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, has been working up to 12 hours a day to keep most of the center’s programs operating on a limited level, said Louis Bernardy, the center’s senior vice president. Services for the chronically mentally ill have been the least affected. But some group therapy programs have been postponed and day treatment services shortened.

The strike’s greatest effect has been on the outpatient program, which accounts for about one third of the center’s patients and is operating at about 40% capacity, Bernardy said.

Striking therapists have called their patients to tell them about the strike and refer them to other clinics for service, Lawler said.

Contract negotiations, which began in mid-May, stalled June 30 when the old contract expired and the workers declared a strike July 1. The workers have proposed a 4% annual wage increase while management has countered with a proposed 2% cut for the first year of the contract and a 1% increase the following two years.

The average annual salary for professional staff employees is about $30,000, according to Lawler.

Bernardy said that the center is struggling with a deficit accumulated over the last four years. He added that while the center has provided wage increases for employees over the last three years, the county contracts that support the center have not provided for cost-of-living increases.

“At this point we have very little flexibility,” he said.

Earlier this week, management sent a telegram to the union warning that if the strikers did not return to work, the center would hire workers to replace them. This week the center hired several clerical workers and next week will hire five professionals, center representatives said.