When NUHW members at Richmond Area Multi-Services (RAMS) settled a contract in 2021, they were originally slated to get 9 percent raises over three years. But after the latest mid-contract raise, that contract will boost salaries 23 percent over four years.
After winning a big mid-contract raise in 2022 along with a one-year extension, the nearly 100 mental health care professionals returned to the bargaining table this year and negotiated a 3 percent salary increase for the final year of the contract that now ends in 2025.
“We’ve made a lot of progress with this contract,” said Kimberly Banford, a mental health counselor at the nonprofit. “There’s still more work to do, but we’ve significantly increased our pay and helped RAMS become a more competitive employer that can better attract workers.”
RAMS is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides mental health services primarily at public schools and to members of the city’s Asian-American community. Salaries have increased considerably since the nearly 100 workers joined NUHW in 2017, but the nonprofit still struggles to keep workers in the nation’s most expensive city.
This year’s agreement doesn’t just further increase salaries; it gets workers more involved in helping RAMS diversify its funding sources so it has more money to invest in its workforce.
Currently, RAMS is disproportionately dependent on funding from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which is facing a steep budget shortfall this year. As part of the agreement, the joint labor-management committee will expand its work to start identifying additional funding for the nonprofit.
“This agreement puts us in a good position to make RAMS a stronger, better-funded organization and to continue to improve salaries and working conditions when we start bargaining a new contract next year,” said Rita Phang a mental health counselor at the nonprofit.
