Members at The Sequoias – Portola Valley settle three-year contract with new employer
NUHW members at The Sequoias – Portola Valley, an upscale Bay Area retirement community, voted to ratify a three-year contract that includes raises of 10 percent over three years and puts to rest workers’ concerns over job security.
After decades of being directly employed by The Sequoias, these housekeeping and dietary workers learned earlier this year that their jobs were being subcontracted to Morrison Living, a firm that operates in 42 states and has an alarming track record of violating the rights of its workers.
Concerned that Morrison would try to immediately try to impose takeaways, the worker-led bargaining team earlier this year negotiated a three-month agreement that maintained the same terms of the previous contract with The Sequoias.
After the short-term contract was settled, the bargaining team commenced negotiations that culminated in the new three-year agreement that includes a ratification bonus for all workers, maintains all health benefits of their previous agreements, and adds an employer-funded Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for out-of-pocket medical expenses.
“We didn’t know how it would affect us when Morrison came in,” said Janet Sarceno, a food service worker at The Sequoias. “But we stood our ground, showed up in large numbers, and fought hard to keep the gains we had made.”