Union may oust disabled workers
Desert Haven's training program in jeopardy
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Saturday, May 9, 2009.

By JAMES RUFUS KOREN
Valley Press Staff Writer

Union officials have said the concern is a red herring, planted by Rite Aid, as part of a general anti-union stance.

"You're being played by Rite Aid," Peter Olney, negotiator and director of organizing for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told a reporter. "Shame on them."

Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid and the ILWU, whose employees at the company's Lancaster distribution center voted to join in March 2008, have been in contract negotiations since last summer.

One of the issues raised in negotiations, union officials said, is that workers from Desert Haven, an agency that provides job training and job placement for the developmentally disabled, are doing jobs that should be done by union members.

About 30 Desert Haven workers repair, sort and wash plastic bins used in the facility and do other basic jobs.

"The position the union is taking is that the work those people are doing should be part of the union contract," Olney said.

Olney and ILWU local 26 President Luisa Gratz said they don't want to force Desert Haven clients out of their jobs. Rather, they said they would like them to join the union.

"We believe anyone employed with Rite Aid at the Lancaster distribution center should become a member of the union," Gratz said. "We don't care if they have disabilities."

Jenni Moran, executive director of Desert Haven, said it's not that simple. Treating Desert Haven workers like employees without disabilities would be setting them up for failure, she said.

Desert Haven's workers perform work at Rite Aid, but they do not work for Rite Aid.

They work for Desert Haven, which in turn has a contract with Rite Aid.

That is, Rite Aid pays Desert Haven and Desert Haven pays the workers. Desert Haven incurs costs in the process, Moran said, because the agency supervises its workers.

"They're supervised 100% of the time by a Desert Haven employee," Moran said. Desert Haven workers - the agency calls them consumers - work from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Moran said Desert Haven spends about $115,000 annually on workplace supervisors.

She said without those supervisors, the workers would not be able to hold their jobs.

"They do require supervision and that additional support," Moran said. "They're learning how to interact and act appropriately in a socially acceptable and professional manner. … They're great workers, but they need that added support to be successful."

William Schaeffer, a Desert Haven supervisor, said only one or two of the 30 or so Rite Aid workers could hold jobs without supervision. Many have memory or emotional control issues that prevent them from remembering how to do specific tasks or how to interact with other Rite Aid employees.

"Today, there was a consumer working with a pallet jack, and I had to take him off that," Schaeffer said. "He can be unsafe. … He needs to look both ways, he needs to stop at walkways. He needs to yell 'coming through.' "

Other workers, he said, might habitually forget to wear gloves when working with box cutters.

Moran said task retention - a worker's ability to remember how perform all the steps of a given task - is a big issue for many Desert Haven workers. For others, a lack of social skills is a bigger problem.

"They need to work on things like taking directions from a supervisor," Moran said. "These are things that would get them fired."

Moran said Desert Haven treats every worker as if he will one day be able to hold a job on his own. Some eventually meet that goal. But others will likely never be able to hold a job without Desert Haven or another support agency, she said.

But under the proper supervision, she said, most of the agency's workers can be effective and productive.

"It's just that level of supervision that they need," she said.

Gratz, the ILWU local 26 president, said she was not familiar with Desert Haven or the agency's contract with Rite Aid.

She condemned Rite Aid for what she called "cruel," anti-union tactics. She refused to mention Desert Haven by name, but Gratz insinuated that Rite Aid fired pro-union employees and replaced them with Desert Haven workers - an allegation that does not seem to fit facts presented by ILWU and Desert Haven.

"I think the employer is inappropriately utilizing these agency employees against the employees who had been on that job for many, many years," Gratz said. "They're playing a very cruel game with these agency people."

Gratz said she could not name any of the agencies to which she was referring. Desert Haven was the only agency brought up during her conversation with the Valley Press.

Desert Haven workers have worked at the Rite Aid facility almost as long as the facility has existed, Moran said.

"We've been there eight years," she said. "That doesn't hold water at all."

Workers at the facility did not approach the ILWU to seek possible representation until April 2006, according to ILWU documents.

If anything, Moran said, there are fewer Desert Haven workers at Rite Aid than ever before. In the past, the agency has had as many as 100 workers at Rite Aid.

Contract negotiations between Rite Aid and the ILWU are ongoing. Union and Rite Aid officials said they do not know when negotiations might wrap up.

Meanwhile, Desert Haven has let its workers know that their jobs at Rite Aid might end.

Ray Lardie, a 47-year-old Desert Haven worker, said losing his job at Rite Aid would feel like "a big blow to my stomach."

"I hope everybody stays put where they are now," he said.

Lardie has worked at Rite Aid for six years. Moran said he's one of the few workers who might be able to get a job on his own.

Lardie, who says he plans to move into a group home soon, said his job at Rite Aid has made him feel more independent.

"I grow more here," he said. "I'm more of a man now."

While Lardie might be able to get a job on his own, Moran said that probably isn't the case for 23-year-old Peyton Von Buck.

Von Buck said he didn't need any help from Desert Haven supervisors Friday, but on other days the supervisors have shown him how to cut plastic from pallets of merchandise and do other tasks.

He has worked at Rite Aid for more than three years.

If he can't work at Rite Aid, he said he'd most like to work at Hunter Dodge, washing cars.

Fred Price, who goes by the nickname "Fredzilla," said it wouldn't bother him if he couldn't work at Rite Aid anymore, as long as he could work elsewhere.

"I'll still come to work, no matter what my situation is," said the 42-year-old, who has worked at Rite Aid and other Desert Haven sites for roughly four years. He said working "makes me feel proud I'm part of something."

Moran told him Desert Haven "will move heaven and earth" to find more job placements, but she also said finding placements for Desert Haven workers has been more difficult lately because local companies are cutting back.

"We have other relationships with Lockheed, H.W. Hunter, (Antelope Valley) College and several locations where we have off-site crews," Moran said. "But by far our largest site is Rite Aid. And given the state of the economy, developing new sites of this nature is very difficult."