Workers At Individual Development, Inc Join SEIU 500

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

“In a union election covering 150 employees who provide services for people with developmental disabilities at Individual Development, Inc. (IDI), workers [last Tuesday] voted overwhelmingly to join SEIU Local 500, a union of 18,000 human service, education and child care workers across Washington, DC and Maryland,” reports SEIU Local 500. "I go to work every day because I believe in providing the best services possible to the individuals at IDI," said Gerard Bradley, an active treatment specialist at IDI. "But at $10 an hour without affordable healthcare, I knew it was time to vote yes for SEIU so we can have hope for a better future." SEIU Local 500 says that IDI President David Wilmot continues to pay his staff poverty wages, “despite considerable public scrutiny for his excessive salary at IDI which totals over $265,000 a year and his second job as DC lobbyist, for which he receives yet another six-figure salary.” The union says Wilmot sought to convince IDI employees not to form a union in a campaign of intimidation, which included meetings with employees pleading for workers to give him another chance. SEIU Local 500 has filed an unfair labor practice charge against IDI for alleged illegal termination of an employee for union support. "With our union, we'll be able to make sure we are finally treated with respect and dignity on the job," said Bradley. – story/photo adapted from a report by Jessica Kutch on SEIU’s website