For Vermont mental health workers, grit and guts turn the tide against anti-union employer

Local 1674 (Council 93) members stand united during a Honk and Wave action. Photo credit: Council 93
https://www.afscme.org/blog/for-vermont-mental-health-workers-grit-and-guts-turn-the-tide-against-anti-union-employer
By Tim Cauley · Monday, January 13, 2025
The Council 93 members who work at the Howard Center, a mental health and substance recovery provider in Chittenden County, Vermont, knew what they were up against. For decades, their employer had been vehemently anti-union, maintaining a right-to-work-type contract since they were organized in 1980.
Dan Peyser, a psychotherapist at the Howard Center Methadone Clinic, put it this way: Howard Center is not a normal employer. Its not that they dont play ball. For them, its more. There is no ball game.
Council 93 General Counsel Rob Van Campen described the lengths to which the Howard Center has gone to prevent unionization at their workplace: This is an employer who appealed a minor issue of labor law, which they had little to no chance of winning, to the Vermont Supreme Court, lost, and then tried unsuccessfully to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court.
Stonewalling by management had been routine when Peyser became the president of Local 1674 in 2018. He was determined to change that. He believed that his co-workers at the state-funded center deserved both more recognition and better pay for the taxing yet critical services they provide. But he also recognized that to win better contract language, he needed to focus on strengthening and organizing the membership.
FULL story at link above.