With cuts on the horizon, Western Montana Mental Health Center case managers unionize
It’s been nearly six months since the first waves of anxiety over state cuts to Medicaid swept through Missoula’s behavioral health community. Even after last week’s special session, however, case managers still have no clear picture of how Montana’s budget crisis will affect them. What they do have—at least at one regional not-for-profit—is a newly unified voice.
On Sept. 20, case managers at the Western Montana Mental Health Center voted to unionize, a development that shop steward and six-year WMMHC case manager Cheryl Nguyen-Wishneski attributes largely to fear over the impacts of state budget cuts. Nguyen-Wishneski says case managers first got together in a state of shared shock mid-summer to discuss their options, after they were informed of impending layoffs in their department. She adds that the new union also includes community rehabilitation aides, who frequently work in tandem with case managers for high-need clients.
“Pay was going to go down, workloads were going to go up, and that’s what was presented to us,” Nguyen-Wishneski says of the explanation she and other case managers were given for how WMMHC would absorb a 37-percent cut to Medicaid reimbursement for case management.
The union has yet to finalize a collective bargaining agreement with WMMHC. Nguyen-Wishneski says that on the advice of Missoula Area Central Labor Council President Mark Anderlik, union members opted to first proceed with negotiations focused narrowly on how layoffs are handled.
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