CAHOOTS and HOOTS union workers ratify new contract with White Bird Clinic
CAHOOTS and HOOTS workers, represented by Teamsters Local 206, ratified their first union contract with White Bird Clinic Wednesday after a nearly two-year process of organizing and one year of bargaining for better wages and benefits.
The announcement of the union contract follows after hundreds of people, including community members, social service and health care workers, and CAHOOTS and HOOTS union workers, rallied at Kesey Square.
Workers also managed to garner over 1,000 signatures on a public petition that urged White Bird Clinic to support a fair contract.
"At this point, we want to say thank you to White Bird Clinic for allowing us to follow a path to self-determination and we hope we made our White Bird ancestors proud," said Hayley Shapiro, HOOTS program coordinator and crisis worker.
The contract will result in a new base wage for CAHOOTS and HOOTS crisis workers and medics from $18 an hour to $22 an hour with some wages over $34 an hour depending on experience and years with White Bird Clinic.
The new contract also includes hazard pay for dangerous "air quality index" events, grievance procedures for accountability, and White Bird offering employer-paid retirement contributions for the first time in over 50 years, according to the CAHOOTS and HOOTS workers union.
What is CAHOOTS and HOOTS?
CAHOOTS, which stands for Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets, is a free, unarmed, 24-hour mobile crisis intervention in the Eugene-Springfield metro area that is dispatched through the Eugene police-fire-ambulance communications center and the Springfield non-emergency number.
Each unit consists of a medic and crisis worker who provide services like crisis counseling, suicide prevention, assessment and intervention, conflict resolution and mediation, first aid and non-emergency care, substance abuse care and more.
HOOTS, which stands for Helping Out Our Teens in Schools, provides integrated healthcare clinics and tragedy response support in Eugene, Springfield, and Oakridge High Schools.
"Our program was started by CAHOOTS workers in 2017 who were responding to teen suicides on the vans and in conjunction with our local schools, wanted to find a way to serve youth more directly," said Shapiro at the Kesey Square rally.
The HOOTS program advertises itself as a free, confidential, and voluntary space to talk about "big feels and little feels, mental health, and medical concerns."
The program seeks to support students on a range of topics including LGBTQ issues, sexual health, mental health, physical health, poverty, school and home life, interpersonal relationships, family relationships, substance use and abuse, and more.
The clinic can also connect students to long-term counseling and get them signed up for the Oregon Health Plan.
CAHOOTS and HOOTS workers union history
Every worker with CAHOOTS and HOOTS signed union cards and presented the unanimous decision to White Bird Clinic leadership that the teams were seeking union representation as a joint bargaining unit in Aug. 2022.
The union cards were then submitted to the National Labor Relations Board which triggered a union election. In Sept. 2022, CAHOOTS and HOOTS workers won their right to organize.
The union is one of three separate bargaining units at White Bird Clinic. Workers with the White Bird Clinic Crisis Hotline ratified their first union contract representing over 20 workers in February. The White Bird Clinic Front Rooms and NEST department, which represents over 30 workers, are still in a bargaining process.
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: CAHOOTS and HOOTS union workers ratify new contract White Bird Clinic
