The ABA Worker's Union

Short on time? Here's the gist: we're asking the community to contact CEO Jonathan Weaber to sign a fair contract.

TELL CEO JONATHAN WEABER WE NEED A FAIR CONTRACT!

☎️ 757-672-4843 or 📧 jonathan@compassva.com

"Mr. Weaber, sign a fair contract. These kids learn where your employees work - and they both deserve better."

Our Working Conditions are Our Client's Therapy Conditions

Who We Are

Workers at Compass Youth Services (operating in Virginia as Compass Behavioral Group) began organizing in December 2024 for better working conditions.

We're workers in Applied Behavior Analysis - a type of therapy that focuses on changing the environment to help families of kids, often with Autism, learn new skills. We work long days, in the home with our clients, often with little support, because someone needs to show up when these families need help.

We decided to show up for each other, too. We won our union in June of 2025 - and our employer has done everything in their power to intimidate, coerce, and discourage us from winning a fair contract.

Why Organize?

While Compass makes millions in revenue, its workers live paycheck to paycheck. Many of us work other jobs so we can afford to work at Compass.
While the company makes millions in revenue every year, even a single canceled appointment means no pay for the clinicians who make therapy possible - even if they show up ready to work.
If workers do not maintain a billable hours expectation - even if they never miss a scheduled session - they can lose their health insurance, putting many of us at risk of losing access to the life-saving medications.

During bad weather, R/BTs are expected to continue operations "as long as they feel safe" - with the threat of a location director "reaching out with concerns" if you cancel an appointment. You must choose between risking it and driving in a snowstorm or staying safe in the apartment whose rent you won't be able to pay that month. Each winter, a clinician is involved in a weather-related car accident. This year, one clinician's car was totaled when they skidded while driving in a rural area. We've raised money to support each other, but on our hourly salaries, even a minor accident can take us off the road and out of a job.

The company has a policy of shifting financial liability onto its workers, so we decided to stand up not just for ourselves but for ABA workers across the country. We founded this organization, The ABA Workers Union, to help others learn to unionize, and to push for fairer standards for RBTs across the nation. Despite numerous calls from experts in our fields, Employers continue to exploit hard-working, caring people. We are behavior technicians. We are board-certified behavior analysts. We are united in calling for change in our industry.

We tried asking management for much-needed change. Behavior Technicians (referred to as "clinicians" at Compass), RBTs, BCaBAs, and BCBAs demanded change on April 9th, 2025, capturing a mandatory company meeting and airing their concerns with the location director, Hope McMaster (BCBA). While management promised to rectify our concerns swiftly, no action has been taken since other than the removal of McMaster. So on June 11th, 2025, we voted YES to unionize.

Lindsey Thompson, BCBA, even went as far as to spy on those who voted, despite that behavior being strictly prohibited per election rules:

Since then, the company has placed Jenelle Paige, BCBA, and Lindsey Thompson, BCBA, in charge of discouraging the union campaign. These individuals have illegally fired a union organizer, Alex Raymond (BCBA), threatened workers with discipline on trumped-up charges, docked pay, and underscheduled workers. There were once over 50 workers in the Richmond Region - now, that figure is barely half that, with most workers being new hires the company has brought on and isolated to attempt to weaken our resolve.

What We Stand For

A living wage for clinicians (RBTs, behavior technicians)
Paid sick and holiday time
Cancellation protection
Stable schedules
Balanced caseloads

Working in this field isn't easy - and we don't expect our jobs to be perfect. However, with turnover rates higher than 50% per year, families face a revolving door of technicians, and BCBAs cannot keep up with the demand to train new technicians. Families are exhausted of the constant reset and regression, and we're tired of being taken for granted. For the future of the company and the field of behavior analysis, we demand better.

Jonathan Weaber, CEO (pictured below), has spent tens of thousands of dollars attempting to crush the union campaign.

The Company's Union Busting Tacts

In addition to the cowardly and unethical actions of Lindsey Thompson and Jenelle Paige, Compass has hired not one, but two union-busting "consulting firms," harassed membership, and fired one of our lead organizers. They continue to make life difficult in the hope they can wear us down - but we continue to stay strong, united with our allies, and determined to see a vision of ABA that is compassionate to both consumers and workers alike.

How You Can Help

Whether you work in ABA, are a family member of a client receiving services, or are simply a community ally - stand with us in demanding that the CEO of Compass Behavioral Group, Jonathan Weaber, bargain in good faith with our union and immediately cease union-busting tactics.

Share our story. Let people know that frontline clinicians are organizing for safer working conditions and fair treatment. Public attention matters - silence helps companies, like Compass Behavioral Group, avoid accountability and continue to abuse their workers.

You can also support one of our union leaders, La’Tavia Lowe, who recently lost her vehicle in a hit-and-run outside her home. La’Tavia provides in-home therapy to young children with autism. Without reliable transportation, she cannot work.

Help her get on the road here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-our-union-sister-until-the-wheels-fall-off

Last but not least, you can contact Compass leadership directly and urge them to bargain in good faith and sign a fair contract that protects workers and families.

Stand with Compass Workers! TELL CEO JONATHAN WEABER WE NEED A FAIR CONTRACT NOW!