AFSCME Council 5 organizes second group home

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/articles/afscme-council-5-organizes-second-group-home

By Larry Sillanpa, Labor World
May 15, 2015

DULUTH
AFSCME Council 5 has organized a second group home system in the Duluth area. On April 24 the National Labor Relations Board issued a “certificate of representative” for AFSCME following a January counting of ballots at AHL Healthcare Group, which does business as At Home Living Facilities, Inc.

AHL has 8 homes and their corporate offices in Duluth, and two homes in Two Harbors. It also has a home in Anoka and Washington counties that weren’t part of the organizing effort.
The contested vote found 22 for the union, 21 against, and 6 contested ballots. The bargaining unit has 77 employees.

Last September, AFSCME Council 5 won an historic organizing victory when workers at the Duluth area’s Stepping Stones for Living voted 94 to 22 to be represented by AFSCME for the purpose of collective bargaining. It was the first union organizing win at a private, for profit group home system in Minnesota. At the time Stepping Stones had 17 group homes from Esko, MN to Hawk Ridge in Duluth employing 173 workers.

AFSCME Council 5 Organizer Adrienne Kern said she thinks AHL is only the second group home system organized in Minnesota. Both SSL and AHL had similar situations that made employees want to get a better shake out of their jobs.

FULL story at link.