Below is a letter from the President of SEIU Local 509. Local 509 represents over 11,000 human service workers in MA. About 2/3 of the members are state workers, and 1/3 work at non profit human service providers that contract with the state. State managers and many rank and file state workers are taking furloughs to save services. Yet, even though most human services are provided by non profit companies, the very high paid managers of these companies are not making a comparable sacrifice. (full disclosure, I also work at local 509)
November 12, 2009
Michael Weekes
Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers
250 Summer St. Suite 250
Boston, MA 02210
Dear Mr. Weekes,
I am writing to you about the economic crisis affecting the human service work force. Human service workers,
particularly those without union representation, are experiencing stagnation in their wages and dramatic
increases in health insurance costs. In addition to recent service cuts, more cuts are on the horizon as we look
into next fiscal year.
The safety net for our states most disadvantaged citizens has never been more compromised. For example
homeless services are now being cut as we speak and clients in the DMH system are being denied the
opportunity of choosing providers. These clients are being cared for by an underpaid and over burdened
workforce. State managers who oversee human service programs have taken three sets of furloughs to help
prevent deeper service cuts to clients and to lessen layoffs. More furloughs are likely on the way for many more
as well. As you know, most human services in Massachusetts are provided by private vendors. Yet, the high
paid managers of these private companies, who are funded by the same source as state managers, have avoided
the painful cuts others are experiencing. We believe it makes sense for high paid vendor managers to
sacrifice some pay in order to save services for the clients who need them.
As you can see from the list below many managers at human service vendors receive salaries that far exceed
those of the Governor, legislature and other managers in state government:
Walter Christian May Institute $393,440.00
David A. Jordan Seven Hills Foundation $392,648.00
Gary Lamson Vinfen $375,103.00
Matthew L. Israel Judge Rotenberg Educational Ctr. $327,074.00
Joan Wallace-Benjamin The Home for Little Wanderers $314,423.00
Paul O’Shea Health & Education Services $276,683.00
Bill Taylor Advocates, Inc. $243,926.00
Andrew Pond Justice Resource Institute $243,866.00
Yi Jung Vinfen $237,081.00
Bruce Bird Vinfen $231,177.00
James Cassetta Work, Inc. $230,850.00
Donald Kozera Human Resources Unlimited $211,960.00
Robert Fishman Resources for Human Development $204,934.00
Scott Bock Riverside Community Care $194,400.00
Diane Iagulli Delta Projects $165,036.00
Susan Abbott Vinfen $152,783.00
Joseph Gomes Vinfen $128,870.00
As the leader of the trade association for vendor managers, I’m calling upon you to use your influence to insist
that your peers make the necessary sacrifices. The wage and benefit gap between line staff and high level
managers is creating a serious morale problem in vendor companies and greatly impacting client care. The time
to act is now.
I appreciate your concern for this issue. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Michael Grunko
President
SEIU Local 509
doesn’t care that he’s adding to the imbalance between management and direct care workers. This is NOT in the calculus. This is all about privitizing and getting the contracts away from state operated facilities and into the hands of private “non-profits” who make more than he does. Had enough yet”? This is not “business as usual,” but business as the Governor has declared. He has hired vendors to run his departments, would you expect any thing else? Good luck, Mike. You’re going to need it.
Maybe the CEO are making too much, I’m not sure I agree. In the non-human service world they could be makng tons more. If you always talk about splitting the same pie, you are never going to win. You have to talk about making more pies.
I salute you, LynPB. You are consistent. In Lyn-world, “non-profit” vendors should be allowed to pay their CEO exhorbitant salaries and perks, while giving their workers a pittance. It’s all good, in Lyn-world.
I never said anything about approving exhorbitant salaries. Did you read the first sentance of my post? You have a hard time getting anybody but the three or four of you commenting on your posts because you are nasty and insulting. There is lots to fight for. You demean the cause with posts like this one.
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p>I have been advocating for higher salaries for direct care workers for my entire career.
What do you know about actually managing these types of programs?
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p>Over the years, Lynpb and I have had many occasions to compare salaries in our respective work worlds between individuals with similar scope and authority.
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p>When supervisors responsible for 6 people were making $50K in financial services, they made $25K in human services.
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p>When managers responsible for 15 people were making $75K in financial services, they were making $40K in human services.
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p>When managers responsible for 40 people were making $120K in financial services, they were making $65K in human services.
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p>When CEOs in finanical services earned multi-millions per year, human services CEOs earned in the $100-300K range.
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p>No one in the human services is overpaid for what they do, compared to other jobs in our society with similar scope and authority.
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Husband and wife tag team. And Lyn – I really don’t care what you think. I don’t. I care about the people who are about to lose their homes and maybe their lives, to privitization, from a Governor who promised us “no more business as usual.”
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p>The issue I have is that these CEOS run tax-free corporations…and pay themselves colossal salaries while giving their direct care workers a pittance. I resent that mightily. I resent having to subsidize healthcare benefits for their workers, while they push to close state-run facilities, taking jobs away which provide decent salaries for working people.
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p>Personally – I think we should start taxing them if they’re going to pay themselves so well. Tax them, and close the loophole on non-profits that are more about profit than anything else. Then I’m good with it.
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p>And please link up on your stats, Beanie. Thanks.
Has that worked for you in other parts of your life? Are people usually won over by your charm? You do no good for your cause.
Kathy Curran
I-Team WBZ (Boston)
November 13, 2009
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p>Several state agencies and the Middlesex District Attorney’s office are investigating disturbing allegations of abuse and neglect at a group home.
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p>Danny Butler was found with bruises all over his body, black eyes and broken bones while in the care of a group home licensed by the state.
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p>”He has down syndrome, he’s lovable, he never had an enemy in the world until this,” said brother Ed Butler.
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p>But what happened and who’s responsible are still unanswered questions that haunt Danny Butler’s family.
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p>The 61-year old was living at a group home in Dracut, a home managed by the Mental Health Association of Greater Lowell and licensed by the former Department of Mental Retardation.
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p>On July 23rd, Danny was rushed to Lowell General Hospital because he was in respiratory distress.
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p>Dracut Police weren’t notified about Daniel Butler’s injuries until he began having difficulty breathing and ended up in the hospital. That’s when doctors and family members discovered all of the bruises and broken bones and called police.
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p>Medical records show Danny Butler had multiple bruises, facial injuries, emotional trauma and possible sexual abuse.
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p>Nancy Alterio, the head of the Disabled Persons Protection Commission says her agency had four allegations of abuse with this one victim.
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p>According to reports obtained by the I-Team, one person at the group home said Danny fell out of bed, another said he pulled some dresser drawers onto his face.
One major problemwith this investigation is that Danny Butler has been silenced by the trauma. Ed Butler says right now Danny can’t communicate beyond yes or no, and as soon as the sun goes down he gets agitated and restless and he’s very afraid.
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p>Nancy Alterio said a lot of things can make it difficult to prove a case. When you don’t have forensic evidence or testimony from victims or witnesses it’s difficult to determine what actually did or didn’t happen.
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p>The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office issued this statement:
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p>”The victim in this case was in a vulnerable situation and suffered highly disturbing injuries. We are conducting an active investigation into what caused these injuries, who may be responsible and whether crimes were committed.”
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p>”It’s tearing me apart. I don’t know how many times I’ve cried up there watching him lay in bed. I don’t want to see him hurt again and I don’t want to see anyone hurt again,” said Ed Butler.
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p>All of the people involved in Danny’s care and the residents at the group home are part of this investigation.
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p>Danny Butler is currently at Tewksbury State Hospital recovering from his injuries.
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p>A spokesperson for the Department of Developmental Services, formerly known as the Department of Mental Retardation, tells us the department has zero tolerance for abuse and if a case of abuse is found at a group home, the license is reviewed and steps are taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The head of the Mental Health Association of Greater Lowell said his organization is cooperating with the investigation.
It’s relevent because private group homes don’t always have properly trained staff. When you pay a pittance, you get what you pay for. It’s relevent because the staff at the group waited to take this poor young man to the hospital ONLY when his breathing started to falter, not at a critical time when a good investigation could have ensured. These are ethical issues and training issues. It’s relevent because there are little to no funds for oversight.
If you want better pay and more oversight, appeal to the lege for the funding; don’t blame the providers who are struggling to cover large needs with limited funding.
who have sold a false bill of goods to the Legislature, claiming that they could serve this population better, faster, smarter and cheaper….except, they can’t, unless they water down services and underpay their direct care staff. So rather than tell the Legislature lies, the vendors should engage in true costing, and pay their people a decent wage instead of piling it on management.
That’s what I want to know.
and apologies if you were offended. I recalled when you were accused of being “sock puppets” after Lyn used your account inadvertently that you are a couple.
is purely anecdotal and not empirical. Next!
Potentially not statistically meaningful. But I’m pretty confident the numbers are representative of the industries, at the points in time they were taken. Do you have any actual management experience in any field that gives you information to the contrary?
Without data – it’s anecdotal for the rest of us. As for my management experience, it’s about two decades worth between elected office and as ED of an advocacy group. We benchmark salaries all the time. BMG is very fond of links, so I am going to have to insist.
Then you don’t need my links. You should already know very well that the numbers are representative.
that listing people’s salaries doesn’t prove a thing. If he wants to make a claim that these salaries are excessive then he must first stop working and devout the next 6 months to investigating exactly what these people do and why they deserve or don’t deserve the money they make. The simple listing of incomes, no matter how obviously excessive his salary is meaningless. How do we know Walter Christian May Institute doesn’t deserve every single penny of his $393,440.00? Maybe it’s the prevailing wage for people in his position.
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p>Wait, these people aren’t on the public payroll, never mind. Any private company employee making big bucks is of course immediately guilty of virtually any charge. Go for it. Plus their pensions… oh, no pensions to worry since these aren’t public payrolls.
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p>Go back to opposite world… meep!
with these “non-profts” getting subsidized healthcare for their employees from the state. I wrote about this not long ago:
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p>It’s BS, JohnD. If these vendors want to pay their CEOs the big bucks – that’s fine…but don’t expect the rest of us to shoulder the healthcare costs of their employees. They should be paying these people a decent living wage and giving them decent benefits…but then their “business model” won’t work when they try to sell it to the Legislature as “cheaper” than state operated model.
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p>Why in the name of all that’s holy would “good” Democrats support this stuff? Have we gone so corporate that we don’t care about this any more?
Post
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p>Examples…
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p>Pension Reserves Investment Management Board
Michael Travaglini
Executive Director
$322000
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p>Mass Port
Thomas Kinton
Ceo/executive Director
$300772
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p>Mass Convention Center Authority
James Rooney
Executive Director
$279619
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p>Mass Technology Collaborative
Mitchell L. Adams
Executive Director
$260227
…at least this guy can differentiate between salary and income. That’s still tricky for you, I realize.
You miss the point. These managers exist to administer public programs. These companies rely solely on tax dollars. While i do think the salaries are too high, that is not the point of the letter. As we speak, persons with disabilities are having their services cut back. Managers in state government have taken up to 18 furlough days to prevent even worse cuts, yet the private sector managers, who provide services to the same clients (and who make a lot more money) are somehow being shielded from the same requirement. All stakeholders need to step up and chip in protect services during this recession.
Seems to me it would be a good PR move, if nothing else, for the ED’s to take a voluntary pay cut and “share the sacrifice”, as the Governor says.
our public sector enjoys a protective force field around them. I have shown how even during these times we have excessive salaries abounding in every nook and cranny in the state. I even posted yesterday that the Boston Public Schools are paying teachers an average $74K salary and they will be getting their 2% raise this year and next year. Tell that to people being cut by the state. Tell that to an unemployed private sector employee. Also remember to tell them about the pensions and healthcare benefits which those same BPS teachers enjoy. Lastly, tell them for every 7 teachers in the BPS system, there is an administrator making $84K.
That’s your point, right JohnD? 😉
We have virtually lost our manufacturing industry thanks to unions. Some companies have moved from state to state in hopes of finding a “friendly” place to work, grow and make money. But the unions will usually infest that new workplace. So… companies have found offshore locations to do their work and now America has become a service economy. Now we are about to lose companies from MA to China…
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p>Just wait till some cap/trade and healthcare bills come for payment. We are spiraling down and we are doing it under our own power. People are so stupid!
popular. I think that the private companies can do their share too, and then pass the savings on to the state, or increase pay for the care workers, so they can spend money, pay taxes and drive the economy forward.
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p>Mass. Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez assails Legislature for adjourning without dealing with $125 million deficit
But people making that kind of money on the public dime should take a hit when times are hard.
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p>And I don’t think it matters whether they could be making more in the truly private sector. They’re still doing quite well.
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p>We do need a bigger pie, but salaries like that don’t help us win the political battle to get it.
Mass. Legislature overrides Gov. Deval Patrick’s attempt to kill Bunker Hill Day, Evacuation Day as public holidays
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p>I never knew that we had to wait for the unions to figure out how to cut the holidays before the government could do it.
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p>Most Massachusetts employees do not gets these two days off. This is so ridiculous.
I’m not going to defend the holidays because I agree with you that they are silly, but the article in the Springfield Republican, like many they publish, isn’t entirely accurate. The holidays are Suffolk County holidays so state offices in Suffolk County are closed, with only essential skeleton staff reporting. In all other counties, the holidays can float – but for 60 days, not to whatever date you want. This is what the NAGE contract says:
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p>The purpose of this is to ensure that union employees in non-Suffolk counties have the same benefits as those in Suffolk County. If the legislature went along with the Governor and eliminated these holidays, there would be no need for the contract provisions relating to the holidays. The union contract follows the legislation, it doesn’t lead it.
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p>My personal feeling is that state employees who work in Suffolk County and feel deep love/reverence/need for these holidays should do what most people, including state employees, do when a holiday they observe falls on a work day: use vacation time.
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p>Good luck fighting the observers of St. Patrick’s Day on this one.