On Thursday, October 14th, staff at the Richfield-based mental health nonprofit Headway Emotional Health delivered the letter copied below to Headway CEO, Pat Dale, requesting voluntary recognition for the union they have formed with OPEIU Local 12, Headway United.

Please stand in solidarity with us by sending a message to CEO Pat Dale, asking him to respect the will of his employees by voluntary recognizing the union without a lengthy, expensive, and contentious process and refraining from union-busting activities. Headway United will represent about 150 therapists, case managers, mental health workers, and others who serve our local communities and will give the people who provide care a voice in their working conditions.

Thank you in advance for your support!

---

To Pat Dale and Headway Management,

With great pride, we are writing to inform you that an overwhelming majority of staff at Headway Emotional Health have come together to form a union with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 12. For 15 months, Headway staff have united to share our experiences with the unfair working conditions that led to professional burnout and compromised our ability to provide quality care for our clients. By forming a union we will use our collective experience to ensure fairness and longevity for our staff, and pursue justice for our clients.

For many years, Headway staff have been excluded from conversations and decisions that directly impact our work and the services we provide. We believe that our union’s core values - equity, transparency, security, and a voice for the workers - are consistent with Headway’s stated mission. We believe that we can help each other realize this mission by working together through collective bargaining. We are grateful for the work that our leadership team has put into building an agency with a broad reach and longstanding presence in the community.

We ask that you respect the wishes of Headway staff and voluntarily recognize our union. The signatures attached demonstrate that a majority of staff at Headway support forming this union. If by 5:00 pm on October 15th, 2021 you have not announced recognition, we will demonstrate our legally protected right to file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. Voluntarily recognizing our union without a lengthy, contentious, and expensive process is in the best interest of Headway, and we hope that we can work together.

We look forward to being recognized as a union, to a fair and collaborative process of collective bargaining, and to bringing staff and management together to build a better Headway for each other and for our clients.

Respectfully,

Headway United