Workers Allege Harassment
Here in Madison she is a certified nursing assistant, or CNA, working at Oakwood Village Retirement Communities, making $10.97 an hour, working third shift, raising two children, and saving up money for the qualifying exams to get her nursing license.
That day can't come soon enough for Loufik, who says she is fed up with her work situation at the Oakwood complex on Mineral Point Road and the difficulties she and others are facing as they try to organize a union.
"I'm from West Germany. I am 34 years old and I remember East Germany.
There I know it was a police state," she said.
At Oakwood, she alleges, "They are sitting hours in front of a camera to
see who is union-involved. They have a blacklist with all the names of who is
very involved in the union."
The Service Employees International Union Local 150 is helping Oakwood workers form a union. Employees and union organizers are charging that the company's administration is trying to thwart union activity.
In late August, a majority of Oakwood Village's 300 service workers signed union authorization cards, and the union filed for a National Labor Relations Board election, which is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.
Their main complaints are low morale, high turnover, an unfair pay scale, discrimination and what they call a declining quality of care for residents.
Two weeks ago the union asked the NLRB to bring unfair labor practice charges against Oakwood for what it calls "coercive and threatening behavior, and for discrimination against union supporters."
The union alleges that in recent weeks the Oakwood administration has told workers they can be fired for union organizing, and managers have interrogated workers about their union activities, sent messages to employees warning them not to distribute any union literature, and compiled lists of union supporters.
But John Norieka, executive director of Oakwood Village, said the organization's board of directors and its human resources committee will respect whatever decision employees make.
"We absolutely believe strongly in the right of our employees to choose to be represented by a union if they wish to be," he said.
Norieka promised that administrators at the assisted living center will work "constructively with our employees" whether or not they choose to be represented by a union.
He denied charges that the Oakwood Village administration has made it difficult for employees to form a union, is not keeping up with wage increases, and has hired a union-busting law firm as the union and some employees allege.
"We feel that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that employees understand precisely what their rights are under the law," Norieka said.
The company hired Axley Brynelson "not to advise us on how to interfere with a process," but to make sure Oakwood's management conducts itself according to law, Norieka said.
Claiborne Hill, organizing director for SEIU Local 150, calls Axley Brynelson "a union buster," and said that the management at Oakwood Village is waging a fierce anti-union campaign.
"They are a Lutheran organization," she said. "The Lutheran doctrine respects union rights to organize. So we didn't expect such a strong and negative anti-campaign."
It is difficult for outsiders to understand the coercive nature of an anti-union campaign, Hill said.
"These campaigns are designed to make workers so fearful that they act against their own economic and professional interests," she said.
Chad Jenkins, 28, has worked at Oakwood as a certified nursing assistant for nearly four years. He has recently been attending nursing school at Madison Area Technical College and had an arrangement with his supervisor about coming to work late once a week.
After the union drive he was told he no longer had that privilege, he said in an interview, concluding that the move was a result of his involvement with the union.
Jenkins said he could "go on for days" about his grievances with the organization, beginning with a pay scale he says "is all screwed up."
There are employees who have spent six months at Oakwood who make more than people who have worked there 10 years, he said.
Jenkins makes $10.47 an hour with 10 years of experience as a CNA.
"That doesn't seem fair to me," he said. "There wouldn't be such a high turnover if people were satisfied with their jobs."
Staffing nursing homes is a problem everywhere, Jenkins acknowledged, but a more equitable pay scale would be a positive first step, he said.
Monica Metcalf, Oakwood's human resources director, said that the organization's rapid growth may be an issue.
"We consider ourselves to be a leader in the Madison area in terms of our compensation package and conditions of employment compared to other long-term care facilities," she said.
"We do not know specifically what the issues are that have caused some of our employees to request an election but it may be due to the rapid growth we have recently undergone due to the construction of our east side facility."
Oakwood would prefer to work directly with its employees regarding wages, hours and other terms of employment, Metcalf said. At the same time, the company supports its employees' right to have an election, she said.
Ben Dalsoren, a CNA who works as a rehabilitation aide for the therapy department, isn't buying that. He claims he was threatened with termination for his support of the union.
He was given a verbal warning two weeks ago for solicitation and said management would not tell him what he was supposedly soliciting. And once he was identified as a union supporter, Dalsoren said, his superiors began a series of checks on him.
"All of a sudden they would say, 'You were gone for 16 minutes. Where were you?' " said Dalsoren.
He also alleges that discrimination is a problem at Oakwood and that some Hispanic housekeepers make at least $2 per hour less than other housekeepers.
Dalsoren is paid $11.16 an hour but said he will top out next year at $11.23 and will not receive any more raises.
Oakwood board member Rev. Larry Thies, of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, said the organization has always gone out of its way to do what is just and fair for its employees and what is best for its residents.
"They see that as a balancing act," he said.
Thies said he doesn't perceive Oakwood as being anti-union. While they have said they won't prevent a union vote, they don't embrace it either, he said.
"I do have a lot of confidence in the administration at Oakwood and the kind of people who are part of it," he said.
Thies said he has spoken with one of the union organizers and described the representative as strident, confrontational and unyielding.
"And I am a Democrat and a union man. I really believe in unions. But I don't believe in being one-sided either and villainizing your opponents all the time."