MHCD and MLK

It’s more than ironic Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD) received an award of excellence in honor of Martin Luther King. Managers attended the award luncheon on MLK Day due to hard work of their employees.
A dedicated staff of nurses, mental health workers and therapists were being acknowledged for their service to the severe and persistently mentally ill in the city of Denver.
Approximately half of the 6500 clients of MHCD are people of color.
The line staff had the day off. Many were in attendance at the yearly Marade to honor Dr. King.
They weren’t invited to the luncheon celebrating their excellence.
The employees of MHCD are represented by SEIU 105. The contract between the union and the corporation was recently being negotiated until management stopped the talks. Instead the management immediately implemented the proposal union members voted down by a 94% margin.
The management’s contract offer removed healthcare and all other benefits to newly hired part time workers with less than a 30 hour weekly schedule.
Even Wal-Mart offers prorated benefits to its part time workers.
So, the great irony is the center received an award for work of its employees to honor a man who was a steadfast supporter of unions.
Martin was killed in Memphis at the time he was there to support the all black sanitation worker’s union.
The other irony is MHCD works with a large number of clients without healthcare. They see first hand the problems being uninsured cause every day. And still they dictated removing healthcare for a group of their employees.
In addition they dictated all employees losing sick days and needed time off from an incredibly stressful work environment.
Yet another irony; a center for mental health makes the work environment for their award winning staff even more difficult.
The day after the King holiday, over 50 union members used their lunch hours to do informational picketing at one site of MHCD. They did this despite emails from managers suggesting the picket might dissuade clients from entering the center for treatment.
Managers apparently didn’t see increased stress of employees losing valuable time off or other employees’ lack of insurance affecting client care.
I’m pretty sure which side of this picket line Martin would have chosen.


Terry Leichner, RN