The union for more than 600 Oregon state workers assigned to group homes for disabled people wants Gov. Tina Kotek to fire the Department of Human Services boss overseeing those employees.
The request underscores festering tensions between Oregon Department of Human Services workers and managers of the agency’s Stabilization and Crisis Unit. For months, rank-and-file employees have complained publicly and internally about worker safety, mandatory overtime and burnout in the unit, which runs a 24-hour residential program for up to 95 people in 20 group homes that stretch from Eugene to Portland. Residents have intellectual and developmental disabilities, often combined with mental health issues that require close supervision and sometimes attention from more than one caregiver during a crisis.
Hundreds of emails and other documents reviewed by the Capital Chronicle show the union has repeatedly pushed the agency’s management for better pay and working conditions, sounding the alarm about worker injuries, staff exhaustion and low morale. State workers say they are unhappy with the response of their manager, which includes blaming workers for problems. Records also show internal resistance to change.
On July 12, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1246, which represents the caregivers, sent a letter to Kotek’s office on their behalf. The letter, obtained by the Capital Chronicle, comes as the union and agency are in the midst of negotiating a new contract.
“In light of serious mismanagement of the agency, we are reaching out to you to request the removal of the SACU Director Sierra Rawson,” the union said in its letter to Kotek and labor liaison Bob Livingston.
“She, being our director, has not shown us the respect that’s deserved for her employees and it just is disheartening.”
AFSCME officials sent the letter based on employee feedback: Nearly 95% of employees supported Rawson’s removal in a vote of no confidence. More than 400 employees participated in that vote during a one-week period that ended July 2.
“Our members at SACU are continuing to serve these communities in need even though they are being injured on a daily basis, and they are working through extreme staffing shortages, which creates an unhealthy and unsafe work environment,” the letter said. “For these reasons, we find it necessary to send this immediate request.”
The Capital Chronicle sent a copy of the letter to Rawson and communications staff and requested an interview with her. The agency declined to make Rawson available to answer questions and sent out a brief statement that says the agency takes the concerns seriously and values the union’s input.
The letter outlined concerns, including:
Staff vacancy rates are at 14.7%, not including employees off for administrative leave and work-related injuries. Managers have an “unwillingness” to address the staffing crisis.The director would not work with the union to ask lawmakers for additional funding for employees, despite a past practice of union officials and the unit’s prior directors doing so. The letter said Rawson also “appears to be lacking the experience and knowledge to do so.”
‘Not shown us the respect’
The jobs are high-stress because caregivers have to deal with people when they have a behavioral health crisis, which often means they have to protect themselves and others from injuries. Caregivers, also called direct support crisis specialists, only earn about $20 an hour on the low end starting out, according to one job posting.
But workers can face severe injuries, including black eyes and stabbings with pencils and other assaults, while laboring in homes for mandatory 16-hour shifts at times.
“She, being our director, has not shown us the respect that’s deserved for her employees and it just is disheartening,” said Christina Sydenstricker-Brown, a caregiver and president of AFSCME Local 124.
It’s unclear whether the request will lead to Rawson’s removal.
Danny Moran, a spokesman in the governor’s office, said: “The governor takes the concerns outlined in the letter very seriously and values the hardworking staff at SACU. Her office has been following up with AFSCME and ODHS,” referring to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
In a separate email to the Capital Chronicle, human services Director Fariborz Pakseresht insisted the agency is taking the union’s concerns seriously.
“ODHS Deputy Director Liesl Wendt and I have toured several SACU homes in the last few weeks to listen to the concerns, challenges and feedback of workers directly,” he said. “We appreciated the honest feedback they shared.”
Many of those homes he visited have improved staffing due to stepped up recruitment and hiring efforts, he said, adding that “we do not comment on issues that may arise during bargaining with our union partners.”
Christina Sydenstricker-Brown, an employee with the Oregon Department of Human Services, is concerned about worker safety and burnout in her unit. (Ben Botkin/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Rising tensions
Tensions between the frontline workers and Oregon Department of Human Services managers have been simmering for months, records show.
The Capital Chronicle reviewed more than 400 pages of emails between top DHS managers and internal messages among public communications staffers and managers about the unit’s workers, negotiations and media coverage.
Earlier this year, the agency’s human resources director, Audray Minnieweather Crutch, told her boss that SACU leaders and a senior human resources manager, Cynthia Gregory, have faced headwinds in their dealings with the union.
“Cynthia and SACU leadership has worked tirelessly to partner with AFSCME and have struggled to get authentic partnerships and agreements with the union,” Minnieweather Crutch wrote in a Feb. 24 email to Pakseresht.
In that exchange, Pakseresht had asked for help crafting a response to union leaders who contacted him with concerns about mandatory overtime, staff safety and the failure of negotiations to make headway.
“ODHS Deputy Director Liesl Wendt and I have toured several SACU homes in the last few weeks to listen to the concerns, challenges and feedback of workers directly. We appreciated the honest feedback they shared.”
“Despite the overwhelming evidence of a crisis, the agency refused to negotiate with the union,” AFSCME’s email said. “We are even more outraged at SACU’s response to the staffing crisis. SACU employees have worked in intolerable conditions for months. As staffing levels have dropped, the danger to which our members are subjected has increased. AFSCME members have sacrificed thousands of hours away from their families to work overtime shifts to ensure the safety and quality of life of the individuals we have vowed to serve.”
In his correspondence, Pakseresht said the union’s letter had “some false assumptions and conclusions.” He told managers to tell staff that he cares for their well-being and to invite them to a “productive dialogue about solutions.”
That dialogue continued with a March 9 letter from the union to Pakseresht. Later that month, he visited several group homes and talked to staffers, itinerary records show.
In the months since then, rank-and-file workers have remained unsatisfied with the progress of talks. Sydenstricker-Brown said it’s been about a year of tensions and an inability to make progress on worker issues.
Sydenstricker-Brown said Rawson has unfairly blamed the staffing crisis on workers who call in unable to report to a shift, adding that call-outs happen after employees are exhausted from multiple extra shifts.
“People are calling out because they’ve been mandated four days in a row,” she said. “So of course they’re tired, they’re burnt out, they can’t physically and emotionally get up. They’re done.”
‘Passed a tipping point’
Shortly after the Capital Chronicle published stories about the crisis in early March, a DHS communications specialist sent out an email to Rawson and other public relations staffers.
Its subject line: “SACU in the media: I hypothesize this is just beginning.”
“I am concerned we may have passed a tipping point,” Bethany Grace Howe, the communications specialist, wrote in the email. “I am concerned there will be more stories to come.”
In her analysis, Howe laid out the reasons: There are multiple media markets and outlets in the group homes’ service area, plenty of stories to tell and reporters can contact workers repeatedly for more stories.
“There is already evidence that one story has led to another,” Howe wrote, adding that now reporters are aware stories are out there, “they will go looking for them.”
“I am concerned we may have passed a tipping point. I am concerned there will be more stories to come.”
Howe recommended SACU and communications staffers meet and brainstorm about how to be as “proactively transparent as possible.”
But Howe’s idea to meet and talk about transparent communications was quickly shot down.
Elisa Williams, a communications manager, forwarded it to Lisa Morawski, the agency’s communications director.
“I’m disappointed as I explicitly counseled Bethany again just yesterday that we need to work in collaborative baby steps with leaders, learn from their perspective a step at a time and a message at a time, and not have a big gathering about changing things,” Williams wrote. “And then, this email, doing just the opposite.”
