Health Now Members Ratify First RWDSU Contract (10/19/07)

Health Now employees celebrate their first union contract

Employees at ten Health Now, Inc., stores in New York and New Jersey ratified their first RWDSU contract on October 18. The new RWDSU Local 2006 members have a two-year contract that, for the first time, provides employer-paid health care. The contract also includes wage increases each year of the agreement. Health Now employees worked 23 years without ever receiving a raise from their employer.
Health Now employees each work a number of jobs at the health products stores, including sales, cleaning, and clerical work.
For Health Now employees, their first contract is the reward for a long struggle for respect in their workplace.

Health Now employees Iris Torres (red hat) and Arelis Payano

"We work very hard for this company, doing all sorts of different jobs, and we never got any kind of respect," said Iris Torres, an eight-year Health Now veteran who works at the 2nd Avenue store in upper Manhattan. "We never got any raises and we didn't have any health care. For years we tried to talk to them about making changes, but it was always the same, they never listened. Well now, they have to listen to us!"
For Arelis Payano, a six-year employee who also works at the 2nd Avenue store, joining the union was worth the fight.
"They showed us movies, gave us pamphlets, anything they could do to discourage us from joining the union," Payano said. "They took away our microwave ovens in the break room, claiming the fire department made them do it! But we knew that it was all a smokescreen, and that with the union we would finally have a voice."

Jamica, Queens store employee Julio Aragon

The treatment of Health Now employees was the same at each of the company's ten stores. Julio Aragon, an eight-year employee at the Jamaica, Queens, store was ready for a change.
"I've worked here eight years, and no raises! No health care either, and when you try to take vacation it depends on the mood of the boss if you got it."
Thanks to the solidarity of the Health Now workers and their first RWDSU contract, that's going to change.
"After years and years of abuse these workers stood up and went with the union," said Louie Lopez, an RWDSU organizer who helped the workers gain their union voice. "Finally they said enough is enough, and things are going to change."
For RWDSU Organizer Joseph Dorismond, the message is simple: "When workers stand together and are united, they always win."