[SPRING 2019] After a year-long fight with Elements Behavioral Health, union nurses at the Right Step facility in Wimberley forced the company to pay $35,000 in back pay to two union members who were wrongfully fired from their job for organizing. The back pay victory was part of a settlement reached between the union and Elements, a private company that operated addiction treatment centers across the country. The fight began after a group of nurses at the Elements facility in Wimberley voted to form a union and joined CWA Local 6186 as a private sector bargaining unit.
Shortly after ratifying their first contract, which included a 6% pay raise over 3 years and other improvements for employees, the company began targeting union members by radically changing their schedules. With the support of TSEU members and other allies across Texas, the union nurses in Wimberley fought the company for a year, organizing rallies across the state, involving the media, and filing a charge with the National Labor Relations Board. In the end, the company offered to settle by paying the affected employees back pay. Solidarity wins!