Message sent to OPEIU Local 8 members at Crisis Connections on Feb. 11, 2026 –
After many months of negotiating, our Bargaining Team has reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) with management on our next contract. Now, it is almost time for us to vote!
Our Bargaining Team is proud to recommend a ‘YES‘ vote.
Highlights of the new TA include:
- Improved internal hiring language.
- Improved and more explicit protections for employees under investigation.
- Reduced unpaid suspension time for investigations of egregious misconduct (from fourteen to seven calendar days).
- Improved protections and options for employees facing layoffs, including an training and acclimation period should a laid off employee apply for a different job & just cause protection.
- Severance pay.
- Alternative holiday options. The ability to switch holidays and, if needed, five additional unpaid days per year to observe religious or conscience-based holidays.
- Licensure reimbursement process improvement, with options for staff who can’t afford to be reimbursed.
- Protection against Artificial Intelligence reducing or eliminating our work.
- Overtime process – no mandatory overtime, instead overtime incentives.
- Departmental or program schedule change process.
- Maintain our health insurance cost share.
- Improved protections for remote workers facing technological issues.
- Traumatic event leave in the event of exposure to traumatic work events outside of regular expectations.
- Leaves of absence for immigration related issues.
- Increased graveyard differential for Crisis Services Clinicians.
- Time limits for grievance meetings so that we can resolve issues timely.
- Wage increases – 3% COLA in 2026 with a ratification bonus.
- Wage increases 2% in 2027 and 2% in 2028.
VIRTUAL TOWNHALLS
We will be hosting virtual** townhalls on Thursday, Feb. 12, from 6-7 pm, Friday, Feb. 13, from 12-1 pm, and Tuesday, Feb. 17, from 8-9 am to go over the agreement in detail and answer questions. Please attend one of these sessions.
** Check your email or contact your Union Rep for the Zoom link to join.
NEXT STEPS
After our final session concludes on February 17, we will email out the entire document and a link to vote for remote employees. We will also be holding in person voting at Crisis Connections on Wednesday, February 18, from 3 to 6 pm. We encourage you to vote in-person if possible!
Voting will close Thursday, February 19, at 12 pm.
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Congratulations and thank you to our bargaining team, whose creativity and dedication got us the best deal we could possibly get! Our team: GB Woolf, April Condell-Stark, Skye Johnson, Marilyn Flynn, Jo Aponte, Lisa Rose