Photo: Teamsters Local 639
Thirty-three behavior technicians at Verbal Beginnings in Rockville have been on strike since Monday, July 20, after contract negotiations broke down between the company and its newly-formed union. The workers, represented by Teamsters Local 639, provide early intervention therapy to young children with autism.
Why workers walked out
Workers voted to unionize last year and have been negotiating a first contract since. Colin Johnson, a registered behavior technician who has worked at the center for two and a half years, said the company hadn’t given center staff a pay increase in three to four years. Ahead of the strike, he said, the company’s proposal was a flat zero.
“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable,” Johnson said. “We’re just asking for a little bit of adjustment to inflation… to be able to better support ourselves and our families.”
He pointed to conditions that drove the original push to unionize, including stretches without basic supplies. “There’d be like month-long periods where the center would just run out of supply gloves,” Johnson said, despite the company describing itself as a medical facility.
A worker chants on the picket line outside Verbal Beginnings. (Photo: Teamsters Local 639)
Families caught in the middle
The walkout has left some families who depend on that care feeling uninformed. Johnson said parents have reached out to striking workers directly.
“We’ve seen a lot of parents reaching out to us, being like, ‘we didn’t have a lot of information coming into this,'” Johnson said.
A standoff, and silence from the company
Publicly, Verbal Beginnings has not responded to the strike, Johnson said. Internally, he said, staff who remain on the job have received messaging he described as anti-union, including the suggestion that striking workers “walked out on the kids.” Johnson disputed that, saying workers gave the required eight days’ notice and that the company knew a strike was planned well before that.
Verbal Beginnings did not respond to phone and email requests for comment sent Monday morning. Johnson said the company has indicated internally that it does not plan to address the strike publicly.
Workers rally outside Verbal Beginnings in Rockville during the ongoing strike. (Photo: Teamsters Local 639)
The bigger picture
Johnson said the dispute isn’t isolated to one company, pointing to a broader trend of private equity investment reshaping the ABA therapy industry.
“It’s slowly being taken over by private equity,” Johnson said. “Their priority is the money. Our priority is the kids.”
He said workers are ready to return as soon as the company offers a fair deal.
“Let us come back,” Johnson said. “We can’t come back with what they’re suggesting. It’s just not fair.”
