Editor’s note 8/30: Guardian Healthcare and SEIU have reached a tentative agreement that will avoid a strike at Guardian facilities.
Nursing home workers at 24 facilities across Pennsylvania have sent strike notices to their employers, with a potential strike date of Sept. 2, according to a state union representative.
Three of the largest healthcare chains in the state, Guardian Healthcare and two co-owned chains, Comprehensive Healthcare and Priority Healthcare, have not bargained in good faith, according to SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the state union representative.
Staffing agencies
Union members voted Aug. 22 to send Unfair Labor Practice notices to strike, asking for higher wages and employer-paid health insurance, among other demands. A top aim is to correct the inappropriate use of staffing agencies’ services.
The nursing home operators have failed to provide information about the use of agency staff, or to include regulatory staffing ratios in contracts, the workers said.
“We’re looking for safer staff ratios so we can perform better for our residents,” Lindsey Burns, LPN, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. “It’s all about our residents. That’s our main goal.”
Donna Pronio, a CNA in northeast PA, said that her facility uses staffing agency workers weekly. The agency workers are paid “two or three times more” than full time staff, who must provide training, but “don’t have the bonds and connections with residents like we do, so residents suffer,” Pronio added in a statement. “The money spent on agency could — and should — be spent on hiring full time permanent staff, and investing in those of us who have been here for years.”
Minimum wage demands
Lower raises, compared with the year prior, also were a complaint. Workers said they did not see evidence of a recent state investment of $600 million in nursing homes, 70% of which was directed to go toward staffing and bedside care.
The workers are demanding minimum wages, including $16 per hour for dietary, housekeeping and other ancillary staff members; $20 per hour for certified nursing assistants and $25 per hour for licensed practical nurses. In addition, the union has asked for increases that recognize longevity and seniority, “to retain experienced caregivers and honor their years of service,” it stated.
State rep weighs in
State Rep. Pat Harkins (D) of Pennsylvania’s 1st Legislative District in Erie said that the state has to be ready to assist a growing population of older adults and that he “fought hard” to get new money into the state budget to improve wages and staffing. It is estimated that 30% of the state population, representing four million Pennsylvanians, will be 60 years or older by 2030, he noted in a statement.
“I want to see these resources get to workers and the residents they care for,” Harkins said.
“We have been the backbone of our nursing home and struggled through COVID,” Pronio said. “Many of us brought COVID home to our families and one of our coworkers even died. Yet they can’t even offer us healthcare we can afford.”
Comprehensive Healthcare and Priority Healthcare have ownership in at least 58 nursing homes across the state and almost 200 across the country, but have no contact information to be found for residents or staff members, according to SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.
