If you can't beat them, join them.

That was the approach taken by Council 2 in Clark County, which has contracted out its counseling services.
After meeting with Council 2 officials, the healthcare workers decided to join the Union, thereby bringing them under similar collective bargaining benefits and wage and salary structures as those enjoyed by Council 2 members.
“If they are going to contract out the work to private sector companies, we are going to go get them,” says Bill Keenan, Council 2 Organizer.
The result was that the 170 mental health professionals from the two companies voted 80 percent in favor of joining Council 2.
“It was a great victory,” Keenan says.
As a result, for only the second time, workers from private sector companies have voted to be organized under Council 2.
The first time it happened was when Laidlaw transportation services in Spokane were organized under Council 2 two years ago.
Although Council 2 is a Union of county and city employees, when work normally done by those employees is contracted out, the Union can seek to organize them, Keenan explains.
Organizing such workers in the health industry is part of a nationwide trend, he adds. In May, 750 Los Angeles doctors joined AFSCME.
“The health care field is changing so rapidly, the pressure on employees is growing,” Keenan says.
“The concern is as much about working conditions as it is about wages. They are concerned about such aspects as high case loads and job security.”
Details of the new wins:

• At The Children's Center in Vancouver, a community mental health agency, 25 psychologists, counselors and support staff voted June 25 to join Council 2. The yes vote formed 67 percent of the total.
  The staff performs work normally done by city and county employees, but which now has been contracted out. All the workers at the agency are now Union members.
• At Columbia River Mental Health in Vancouver, 145 psychologists and counselors in mental health voted to become Union members.
  The victories in Clark County were not the only ones enjoyed by Council 2 recently.

In addition, 41 middle managers and professionals from Clallam County also will join the union.
Council 2 was granted voluntary recognition because of the high number of cards that were signed.
They will become members of Local 1619-MP.
Also in July, Council 2 was granted voluntary recognition by Kitsap County for seven correctional sergeants. They will become members of 1308-CS.
The new wins total 218 new members as Council 2 continues to expand.
At the Council 2 44th biennial convention, Chris Dugovich, President/Executive Director, said the Union has organized more than 1,000 new members in the last two years.
“There are other choices,” Dugovich said.
“Why do they want to join our Union? We do an excellent job—and you say so. Ninety percent come to us because you refer them to us. It is the referrals by the rank and file who send people to us whom we subsequently organize.”