COVER STORY
In Union Drive, Housing Works Employees Rally
Employees rip CEO Charles King, who fi res back after Brooklyn Borough Hall event
Housing Works employees rallying in favor of a union drive on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall on October 29.
BY MATT TRACY
With chants like
“Union busting is
disgusting” and
“Fix Housing Works
now,” more than 100 fed up employees
of Housing Works packed
together on the steps of Brooklyn’s
Borough Hall October 29 to speak
out about poor working conditions
and demand that management respect
their efforts to unionize.
The rally represented a dramatic
turn of events for the nonprofi t,
which has long been dedicated to
eradicating the dual crises of HIV/
AIDS and homelessness and has
often led demonstrations on behalf
of marginalized people. This time
around, however, the organization
found itself on the other side of the
protests: Workers stormed out of
their offi ces on a Tuesday morning
to fl ock to the rally, where they
spoke of fl imsy healthcare plans
with high deductibles, railed
against inadequate paid time-off
policies, and told stories of colleagues
suddenly getting terminated
without notice and escorted
out of the offi ce.
The workers also ripped Housing
Works for overworking them,
saying their client caseloads are
too high. Others tore into Housing
Works CEO Charles King, saying
that his open-door policy is not
what he makes it out to be.
Siobhán Fuller, who works in
the human resources department,
said she has demonstrated her
dedication to the organization’s
mission by getting arrested during
demonstrations on multiple
occasions. Yet, because she has
not met her high deductible, she is
forced to pay hundreds of dollars
for hormones she needs in addition
to $100 per appointment for
necessary doctor visits throughout
the year.
“As a trans woman who works
with the organization, my healthcare
coverage is not enough,” Fuller
said.
Brian Grady, a housing coordinator
who is on the organizing
committee that has spearheaded
the unionization effort, said it was
MATT TRACY
around this time last year that he
and just a handful of others started
meeting in downtown Brooklyn
to begin the unionization process.
They reached out to the Retail,
Wholesale, and Department
Store Union (RWDSU), which has
backed the workers and joined
them at the October 29 rally.
“They’ve been incredibly supportive
of us,” Grady said.
During the latter half of the rally,
a group of employees marched to
Housing Works’ offi ce nearby and
said they presented CEO Charles
King with Unfair Labor Practice
Charges they fi led with the National
Labor Relations Board, alleging
he would not assure that he
would not retaliate against them.
They described King as being dismissive
when they presented the
charges to him. They also noted
that he previously refused to sign
a commitment to neutrality presented
to him by the union.
When reached by phone after
the rally, King referred Gay City
News to emails he sent to staff and
pointed to where he said management
would not to retaliate against
employees.
“I want to be very clear because
I’ve heard Housing Works is doing
things to undermine the union,”
King said. “Housing Works is completely
neutral. We think that is
an employee decision; employees
have a right to unionize and management’s
job is to stay neutral.”
He further stood by Housing
Works’ benefi t package, saying,
“We are quite proud to have been
able to expand benefi ts without
increasing employee contributions
to health plans.”
King also defended employees’
existing caseloads and salaries.
In an October 25 letter to staff,
King outlined the reasons why
he refused to sign the neutrality
agreement: He claimed it would
force employees to attend union
meetings during work time, which
King said management sees “as a
tacit endorsement of RWDSU” and
would take away employees’ rights
to decide whether they wanted to
attend. He went on to cite concerns
about privacy, saying the agreement
would force the organization
to provide workers’ home and cell
phone numbers.
“It would also require recognition
based on a card-check system
instead of allowing you to vote by
secret ballot,” King added in the
email. “Finally, it would prohibit
supervisors and executive management
from having any discussion
with employees pertaining to
the union, even to answer questions.”
However, that email came more
than a month after the head of
RWDSU, Stuart Appelbaum, sent
an email to King in which the
union offered multiple concessions.
Among those compromises
included a willingness to allow
secret-ballot elections and to hold
union meetings “with employees
when employees are not required
to work.”
Grady said after the rally that
management “has been playing
this unusual game where they’re
➤ HOUSING WORKS, continued on p.5
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