D.C. Council members visit picket line

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Two D.C. Council members visited a picket line yesterday to help resolve a dispute between a union for health care workers and the Ingleside at Rock Creek nursing home in Northwest.

Council member Kwame R. Brown, at-large Democrat, said every D.C. resident deserves decent health care and a living wage. However, he did not say how much the workers should be paid.

The minimum wage in the District is $7 an hour, compared with the federal hourly wage of $5.15. Some Ingleside workers said they earned at least $13 an hour, but some had not received raises in years.

Mr. Brown's office sent Ingleside managers a letter three weeks ago, urging them to reach an agreement with the union. The letter was signed by all of the council members.

The Service Employees International Union bused in demonstrators from Baltimore, New York and even California to join the few-dozen Ingleside workers.

Council member Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat, whose district includes Ingleside, said she is working to "encourage dialogue" between employers and unions in the District.

"I'm standing with you to make sure that we have respect in all of our workplaces in Ward 4," said Miss Bowser, who added that she is the daughter of a nurse. "We want to make sure that working families have a place in D.C."

Ingleside spokesman Richard Flanagan said the major sticking point has been the union's demand that nonunion employees pay representation dues.

He also said Ingleside's offer for annual raises is at least 20 percent of a worker's salary, based on merit.

"Believe me, the relationship is not as hostile as [the protesters] made it sound," he said.

"We respect their rights to do what they're doing."

About 30 percent of Ingleside employees have signed a petition against the union, Mr. Flanagan said.

A majority of Ingleside employees voted in January 2006 to join the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents 275,000 workers and retirees in the District, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York.

Sonya Holmes, 48, said a union can protect workers, whose rights she has seen violated during her 20 years with Ingleside. In 2004, she said, she sued the nursing home after a health insurance dispute.

The managers "are treating some of the employees very unfair, you know, like harassment and telling someone that if they join the union they will be fired," Miss Holmes said. "We don't need that."

The National Labor Relations Board has received five complaints from the union about Ingleside.

The board found Ingleside managers guilty of taking a photograph of employees who were distributing union fliers and sending a "coercive statement" to an employee based on her union membership, said Wayne Gold, the board's regional director.