Workers from Long Island Counseling Center, located at 570 Elmont Road in Elmont, say that they have been working without a contract and a strike may be possible sometime in the future.

L.I. Counseling Center, a subsidiary of Family and Children's Association, is an outpatient mental health clinic that also provides services for drug and alchohol problems as well as services for children.

Some of the workers who are members of the union 1199 SEIU, which encompasses healthcare and human services employees, as well as union representatives stood in front of 100 East Old Country Road in Mineola, the location of Family and Children's Association, with signs demonstrating over the lack of a contract. That location was chosen because L.I. Counseling Center is under Family and Children's Association, which is the umbrella organization.

Workers, which include both clerical and social workers, said they have been working without a contract since December 31, 1999. "We've had many negotiation meetings but everything is always at a standstill," said Lena Pinzone of L.I. Counseling Center. "We're picketing in front of the main building on our lunch hour."

Another worker said the delay in the signing of a new contract could be due to the county's budget difficulties. "They don't want to move as far as giving us what we need," said one worker.

Pinzone said the union has been offered a one year contract with a zero percent increase. A raise would then be possible after the one year. "That's totally unacceptable," said Beatrice Saunds of the 1199 SEIU union.

According to Saunds, the state had given the employees a 2.5 percent cost of living increase. That, she said, should have nothing to do with a raise that should be given to workers by Family and Children's Association. "That's what they want to use as the increase. That's the problem because we won't agree to it. That's in addition," said Saunds.

Saunds said the union is looking for a three year contract with a four percent increase each year.

"Everybody works hard everyday to make some difference in somebody's life," said one employee who is a social worker. "We would like to be respectably paid for our work. It's a great agency. I wouldn't work for anybody else. It's an impressive group but we need to be paid for what we do."

The same social worker who has a master's degree and has been working for the agency for 10 years says she is being paid $20 per hour. "I love my work. I wouldn't change it but I'm really underpaid," she said.

Pinzone said wages are not being paid according to the union scale. She said she was hired under the wrong classfication, adding she was hired under a clerk classification instead of a secretary.

Phil Mickulas, chief operating officer of Family and Children's Association, said he would love to see the employees get a raise but the agency was deeply impacted by the cuts to descretionary contracts made this past December.

"Does our staff deserve more than they get? Absolutely. We agree with that one hundred percent but we're not in a position to do that," Mickulas said, adding that every effort is being made to try to get employees an increase when next year's budget is drawn up.

According to Mickulas, a budget process is done on a yearly basis, which starts after labor day weekend. This budget process for the upcoming year is worked on through October and November. This past budget process, management had budgeted a 3 percent wage increase for the employees of Family and Children's Association. However, on December 7, Mickulas heard the announcement that the county would be cutting descretionary contracts by 50 percent. Family and Children's Association's funding was affected by these cuts since human services are considered descretionary.

Mickulas said the cuts meant a loss of $1.3 million for his agency. "That's when we had to go back to the drawing board and cut out over one million dollars in expenses from that budget," he said. "That's why we couldn't pay any particular attention to the fact that a contract had expired December 31. We knew darn well that one of the issues the union was going to be looking for was a wage increase. But there we were, with those kinds of numbers facing us, that kind of precipitous action being taking by the county, holding the bag. We had to explain to hardworking staff why we can't come up with a three percent raise."

Mickulas said he doesn't know when an agreement will be reached. He said management is talking about a three year contract, with the first year practically gone without a wage increase and then possibly an increase for years two or three.

Some of the union workers say a strike is possible if the contract situation is not settled. Mickulas said he is hopeful there won't be a strike. "It certainly would have an effect on the patients that they see and that would be a terrible thing - to have clients who depend on our staff to get services get caught in this process," he said.