Why Butler Hospital Workers Are Still On Strike

Since May 15th, nearly 800 SEIU-1199 union frontline staff have been on strike. The union has been through two months of negotiations with Care New England, the second-largest healthcare management company in the state of Rhode Island. Butler workers are striking for completely reasonable demands: a living wage, and a safer workplace, with enough staff to adequately meet the needs of a growing number of mentally ill and sometimes violent patients. Care New England, on the other hand, despite being a supposed non-profit, has brazenly denied Butler workers a decent living and a safe, well-staffed workplace. Its decision to deny Butler workers these basic demands ultimately denies Rhode Islanders quality mental healthcare in favor of profits.

What do the workers want?

Mental health care is an essential and grossly underpaid field. The average frontline, non-nursing employee at a psych hospital or outpatient mental health program can expect a salary between $35-$42k without a degree. As the cost of living continues to increase, what once was considered a livable income drifts further and further out of reach. 

The staff of Butler hospital want a salary that permits housing and food reliability. When polled, nearly 60% of Butler staff report struggling with maintaining their housing and food. After grueling eight-, nine-, sometimes ten-hour shifts, a direct care professional should be able to end their day without worrying about how they will be able to eat or pay rent. 

The employees of Butler want better staff-to-patient ratios. For the past four years, the number of patient assaults on staff has increased significantly. There have been over 111 assaults in 2025 alone, barely halfway through the year. Care New England is putting its employees and patients at risk by understaffing their units. Nonviolent patients are being traumatized by witnessing these assaults that could be prevented with better staffing. Seriously mentally ill patients with a history of assault are being set up for failure, more violence, more dysfunction, and more hardship when they are placed in environments that are not sufficient for their needs. Safety cannot be guaranteed in a psych hospital setting. However, the odds of an incident occurring can be severely reduced with adequate staffing.    

Care New England: "We don't want you to be able to advance too much"

Not content with making employees’ working lives miserable, Care New England is attempting to phase out retirement annuity benefits for their workers and eliminate pensions for all new hires, ensuring that mental health workers cannot even look forward to a secure retirement.

Butler hospital staff are also fighting to retain their tuition reimbursement program. For many working-class people, a tuition reimbursement program through their employer is one of the few ways to pay for a bachelor's degree or technical certification without incurring crippling debt. Between 2000 and 2022, the average tuition has risen by 60%.

If Care New England is truly concerned with the quality of care they provide, why do they refuse to educate their staff? It is practically an industry standard for healthcare providers to have tuition reimbursement programs with a non-compete clause. Essentially, these programs require that if a company pays for an employee’s education, that employee must stay with the company for a period of time, usually no longer than five years. Care New England is clearly engaging in short-sighted, profit-driven thinking that cannot see past the next quarter. In the CEOs’ twisted logic, they may have determined it is better for their bottom line (and nothing else) to have short-term staff who are not emotionally invested in their employees. Butler is planning on cutting school loan repayment programs and offering less reimbursement for staff who already invested in their education. They also have a policy of refusing any job movement for one year for any hire no matter how well the employee is performing. 

Care New England Can Pay

Despite its status as a non-profit, and constant assertions to the contrary, Care New England has deep pockets. According to Becker Hospital Review, "Care New England ended the fiscal year 2024 with $15.2 million in operating income and an operating revenue for the year of $1.5 billion.” 

As taxpayers, we have been footing the bill for Butler’s greed and union-busting tactics. Like many healthcare providers, Care New England gets a significant amount of its funding through Medicare. Care New England will hem and haw about the need to "align this hospital with the market" (despite being a non-profit), yet it still has a spare $1.6 million in its budget for CEO Dr. Michael Wagner's salary. Demands to “align this hospital with the market” are nothing other than demands to subject mental health care workers and your mentally ill loved ones to the whims of corporate greed.

If that is not enough proof, Care New England has enough in its budget to fly in strike breakers and from out of state. These are mercenaries with no ties to RI and no sense of loyalty or obligation to their patients. The success of mental health care is uniquely dependent on the relationship between patient and provider. These place-holders are flown in from Texas or Florida and paid rates up to $50 an hour, about three times the rate of permanent staff who on average earn about $17 per hour. They are also provided housing at hotels during their temporary contract. 

What does Care New England want?

More income, and fewer expenses. They are ostensibly a non-profit. This means only two things: they do not have to pay taxes, and they call their profits “surplus.” Otherwise, their behavior and operation is indistinguishable from any number of union-busting private corporations. They do not care about the quality of care. The union is asking for a roughly 10% increase in wages, which approaches the cost of living. Care New England is offering 6% and 3% for off- and on-scale employees. To underpay workers in the long term, Care New England is willing to sacrifice huge amounts in the short term. Hiring scabs costs enormous amounts of money up front.  

Why Keep Up the Strike?

Butler workers are not striking for themselves alone. They are striking for the wages and conditions of all workers who will be employed at Butler in the future. Like all bosses, Care New England’s goal is to exert control over its employees. To turn a greater profit, they want to drive workers' wages down, and make them work in dangerous, unacceptable conditions. The Butler workers are striking to show the bosses that workers refuse to sacrifice safety, a living wage, and quality care for unchecked profit-grubbing. They are striking for the principle that healthcare workers who sacrifice for their patients day in and day out should have a say in how their workplaces are run.

Scabs are expensive for Butler, strikes are expensive for Butler. Care New England knows that it cannot hold out much longer. If Butler workers can maintain their bravery and resolve, Care New England will be forced to give in.

In the meantime, workers from Rhode Island and beyond congratulate the striking Butler workers on their perseverance, and thank them for their refusal to fold before the bosses. We offer you our unconditional support in your struggle!