"No Takeaways" Heard Loud and Clear

Laurelhurst Village Workers Come Closer to Winning Employee Health Care

After a successful action on June 22, Laurelhurst Village workers are one step closer to winning employee health care. At their all-staff meeting, almost 100% of workers in attendance wore stickers that said "No Takeaways."

Laurelhurst workers have been fighting for their first contract for almost six months, after a long campaign to form their union. So far, they have reached agreement on non-economic proposals such a health and safety, non-discrimination, grievance procedure and more. Currently, workers do not have health insurance, and the most important issue on the table is winning health care with no takeaways.

Up until the successful action on June 22, management was only proposing health care on the condition that workers gave up 4 days of their Paid Leave Time and their free bus passes.

During an all-staff meeting on June 22, nearly 100% of workers in attendance wore a sticker that said “No Takeaways.” At the end of the meeting, two workers presented a petition [signed by over 80 workers] to management in front of all their co-workers. Bargaining was the same day as the all-staff meeting. While workers were in caucus, they gathered together to get everything ready and management had to face them shortly after the action. And that’s when they brought out the proposal with no takeaways.

“We were successful in our action because ALL of us wore stickers to send the message that we didn’t want takeaways," said Rudy Malana, bargaining team member and dishwasher at the Skilled Nursing Facility. "We got management’s attention during the staff meeting. The meeting was the same day as bargaining, so everyone was really excited to see the action work.”

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