Hundreds gather in downtown Eugene in support of CAHOOTS and HOOTS Union workers

A crowd of at least 100 people gathered in the pouring rain at Kesey Square in downtown Eugene Friday evening in support of CAHOOTS and HOOTS Union Workers' efforts to negotiate a new contract with White Bird Clinic.

"I wish we did not have to be here today. I wish we could have planned a celebration instead of a rally, but we are faced with an organization that we no longer recognize that we can no longer see ourselves in," said Haley Shapiro, program coordinator for Hoots and union bargaining committee member. "Our working conditions directly impact the quality of our service and right now, these services are at risk. "

Workers with CAHOOTS, which stands for Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets and its offshoot program HOOTS, which stands for Helping Out Our Teens in Schools, will be meeting with White Bird Clinic in two weeks to renegotiate a contract that better reflects worker's needs.

Worker demands include living wages, with workers saying the base pay for work at CAHOOTS is $18 an hour. They also want fully staffed teams, affordable dependent health insurance, better retention of workers and program autonomy, no "mandatory" shift coverage, and more.

"Our hope is that our next event would be a public celebration of our contract. We want this program to be able to last forever and right now, it has been extremely difficult to staff our vans," said Chelsea Swift, crisis worker and medic for CAHOOTS, as well as a member of the bargaining committee. "CAHOOTS vans are going out of service regularly and we know that the people who suffer the most in our community know that the best, so that's what we're trying to address immediately."

What is CAHOOTS and HOOTS?

CAHOOTS is a free, unarmed, 24-hour mobile crisis intervention in the Eugene-Springfield metro area that is dispatched through the Eugene police-fire-ambulance communications center and the Springfield non-emergency number.

Each unit consists of a medic and crisis worker who provide services like crisis counseling, suicide prevention, assessment and intervention, conflict resolution and mediation, first aid and non-emergency medical care, substance abuse care and more.

The mobile crisis intervention team has received national attention for its alternative response approach to behavioral health issues and other kinds of crises that do not warrant a police response. The program gained even more notoriety after the summer of 2020 when activist movements against racism and brutality were in the spotlight following the murder of George Floyd.

In June 2023, CAHOOTS announced its new contract with Eugene Springfield Fire Department. Formally, the organization had been contracted with and under the budget and oversight of the Eugene Police Department since 1989.

HOOTS provides integrated healthcare clinics and tragedy response support in Eugene, Springfield, and Oakridge high schools.

"Our program was started by CAHOOTS workers in 2017 who were responding to teen suicides on the vans and in conjunction with our local schools, wanted to find a way to serve youth more directly," said Shapiro at Friday's rally.

The HOOTS program advertises itself as a free, confidential, and voluntary space to talk about "big feels and little feels, mental health, and medical concerns."

The program seeks to support students on a range of topics including LGBTQ issues, sexual health, mental health, physical health, poverty, school and home life, interpersonal relationships, family relationships, substance use and abuse, and more.

The clinic can also connect students to long-term counseling and get them signed up for the Oregon Health Plan.

Meeting at the bargaining table

The CAHOOTS and HOOTS union workers plan to meet White Bird Clinic at the bargaining table within two weeks.

According to Swift, CAHOOTS and HOOTS started organizing together nearly two years ago, it's been a year-and-a-half since the organization won their union election and over a year since they've been at the bargaining table.

"A lot of things have happened in those couple of years, wildfires, ice storms, catastrophes. CAHOOTS and HOOTS have worked through every one of them and we're dedicated, and we'll be here but right now, our wages have not been raised," said Swift, who added that the base wage for workers has been $18 since 2018 and if material conditions of the contract aren't met, CAHOOTS workers may not be able to work through another large-scale crisis.

Attendees at the rally held signs like "CAHOOTS and HOOTS save lives" and "We know our power; we deserve $25 an hour." Organizers led chants like "Living wages shouldn't take ages" and "White Bird Clinic lead the fight, workers of the world unite."

This work can be really isolating so even having ten people showing up willing to hear about our work is more than we're used to," said Swift. We are asking folks to sign onto a letter of support to leadership to support our first fair contract. It's time for us to learn how to ask for help."

CAHOOTS and HOOTS are asking members of the community to sign a petition in support of garnering a fair contract with White Bird Clinic. As of Friday, the petition had a little over 700 signatures out of their 1,000-signature goal.

Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: CAHOOTS and HOOTS workers seek fair contract with White Bird Clinic