On November 21, after over 90% of Avamere at Chestnut Lane workers signed union authorization cards as well as a petition calling for the company to recognize their union, the organizing committee walked into the boss’s office and read and signed the petition to the administrator. Within a week, the company informed our union that they would not fight the workers’ demand for recognition, and the Chestnut Lane workers’ union was voluntarily recognized in early December.

This was a very unique union recognition victory. Earlier this year, as our bargaining team at Avamere’s assisted living facilities (known as Arete) finished negotiating a new contract with the company, a group of workers from Avamere Chestnut Lane, a one-of-a-kind assisted living facility for the Deaf and Deaf-Blind, contacted SEIU organizers wanting to organize a union. Our union bargaining team had won ‘bargaining to organize’ rights in the contract, where workers at the company’s non-union facilities would have the same fair process to form a union as the already-union facilities had.

Only there was a wrinkle – due to some complicated property ownership issues, Chestnut Lane was not eligible to participate in this process. SEIU organizers were upfront with the workers that this could be a fight, and workers were clear that they were completely up for that. Assisted living facilities are in crisis across the country, but the issues are even more acute in a facility providing care for a vulnerable population. Chestnut Lane workers face high turnover and low wages, which makes bringing in new caregivers nearly impossible, especially since staff need to have ASL interpretation skills to be able to provide care safely and with dignity.

This is an incredible group of workers. Most are fluent in ASL, and many are themselves Deaf or Hard of Hearing. Their skill, passion and commitment to the residents of Chestnut Lane, and to the community itself as an institution in the Deaf and Deaf-Blind community, is overwhelming. We are very excited to welcome them to our union, and they will be bargaining over their specific issues at Chestnut Lane as they join the Avamere/Arete contract beginning in January.