Connecticut nursing home workers on second week of strike action

[Omaha Steve]

This story is not copyrighted and may be shared. Just be nice and include a link.

http://www.laborradio.org/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1737107

700 workers at five Connecticut nursing homes represented by 1199/SEIU are in the second week of their strike against an out-of-state corporation that has instituted unilateral changes to their expired contract, despite five complaints issued against the company by the National Labor Relations Board. MT reports from Milford, CT.
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Picketing workers were enthusiastic in their condemnation of New Jersey-based Health Bridge/Care One. Adrianne Sewell is a certified nurses' assistant at West River Health Care Center in Milford, one of five nursing homes the company owns.

Cut :13 We’re supposed to be negotiating a contract that’s agreeable between both parties. They just said they wanted to make their own rules and you know, started taking things away, like cuttin’ our hours.

James, who declined to give his last name, has been a dietary worker at West River for 16 years.

Cut :11 The union was here when I got here but they had to fight hard and vigorously to get the union in here. Back then a lot of people were fired trying to get the union into this building.

The workers’ contracts expired in March 2011 and they had been in negotiations until June of this year (OR “until last month”), when the company made unilateral changes to 38 of 39 articles in the existing contract, according to union spokeswoman Deborah Chernoff.

Cut :17 The most startling change is a vast increase in the cost of health insurance premiums. It’s cutting half of their paid sick time; it’s cutting their vacation time; it’s getting rid of their uniform allowance. It’s getting rid of the pension that they’ve had for many, many years.

She says it also reduces starting pay for CNAs to $12 an hour and even less for other workers. And, she adds:

Cut :23 But what it really is is a wholesale attack on workers’ ability to support themselves. What the employer has said to us is that they don’t want any worker who's in a union to have any benefit that's better, any wage that's better or any working condition that's better than non-union workers, and that's exactly what they've imposed.

The company says a wage increase it bestowed – also unilaterally -- is evidence of its good faith, but the workers say the cut in hours alone negates the raise. A company spokeswoman did not return calls seeking further comment.

A spokeswoman for the NLRB says Health Bridge’s violations are more egregious than most employers. The agency can’t penalize employers who break the law, but it can require them to reimburse the employees' lost wages and benefits, which it is calling on Health Bridge to do. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10 in Hartford. The workers say the strike will continue until they get a satisfactory negotiated settlement. MT, WIN.

[limpyhobbler]

1. k+r for these nuring home workers

This might be the most important thread of the day.

The work these people do in the nursing homes is so important. They deserve to be paid well and treated with respect on the job.

So then they will be able to treat their residents with the care they deserve.

Those nursing homes make a ton of money. I'm positive they can afford to give a little more in pay and benefits.

It's not line they can threaten to move a nursing home to China, so if these strikers hang in there they have a good shot at winning .