FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, February 20, 2023
CONTACT: Emily Dong: 267-761-1502 or emily.dong@seiuhcpa.org
Meyersdale and Western Reserve Nursing Home Workers Send Strike Notices
With little notice of the sale date and buyer for their nursing homes, over 80 workers sent strike notices last week to a new owner who is refusing to accept the existing union contract.
(ERIE and MEYERSDALE, Pa.) — On Thursday, more than 80 nursing home workers at Guardian Healthcare-owned Meyersdale Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center (Meyersdale) and Western Reserve Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center (Erie) overwhelmingly decided to send strike notices as new owner Abraham Smilow refuses to accept the existing union contract workers and Guardian agreed on last August.
Smilow, whose ownership begins March 1st, proposed changes to the contract that will undercut benefits designed to recruit and retain caregivers amid a healthcare workforce crisis. The changes create a two-tiered paid time-off policy that gives newly hired staff less vacation and sick time, eliminates their 401(k), and replaces union health insurance.
“Why does this new company not want to agree to all that we have already worked out with Guardian?” said Julie Walker, a certified nursing assistant for 18 years at Meyersdale. “We were the ones going to work daily during COVID, dragging it home to our family, putting ourselves at risk. We weren’t getting hazard pay or anything. If you get sick, you have to use your own vacation or sick time to cover it. Now, the new owner wants to cut benefit time. Will we have enough time to quarantine with Covid? What if you’re hospitalized? It’s not fair.”
“We just won these wages and healthcare that we hoped would be a great benefit and get more staff into the door,” said Kryslyn Slother, a licensed practical nurse who has been at Western Reserve for over 30 years. “This building has a tremendous amount of staff who’ve been here for a long time. But this is not an easy field to be in. Everyone’s in a very desperate situation with staffing.
“These residents who deserve the world get barely anything,” said Slother. “Residents are more and more isolated and there’s not enough of us to take care of all their needs. Our equipment is breaking, linens have holes in them. It feels like there is no incentive to get people to work in this field. Taking away the few really good things we have going for us is going to be detrimental.”
The sale announcement came after union workers at 18 Guardian facilities – including Meyersdale and Western Reserve – won strong contracts last August which invest in staffing, wages, and healthcare. Those contracts set the stage for union caregivers to win standards at dozens more nursing homes across Pennsylvania which improve resident care and will attract caregivers back to the bedside.
“We knew our nursing home was being sold for months, but Guardian only gave us the name of the new owner a week or two ago,” said Slother. “We’re in the dark. We are very concerned. So are the residents and their families. We won all this recurring state funding. What is this new owner going to do? What are his intentions? Is he going to spend this on the residents and equipment?”
Workers have sounded the alarm on rampant nursing home sales with little transparency for decades. Just last year, change of ownership regulations were passed as part of comprehensive nursing home reforms meant to stabilize the industry in Pennsylvania. The Shapiro Administration is in the process of implementing the new regulations which require buyers to notify residents, workers, and the long-term care ombudsman of the sale with substantial notice. Earlier this month, President Biden reaffirmed at the State of the Union the federal government’s crackdown on the transparency of nursing home ownership.
“Nobody wants to work in these healthcare fields anymore because facilities keep changing hands,” said Walker. “There’s something deeply wrong with our healthcare system. Owners change, but it’s the healthcare workers who stay, who care, and who want to help the residents. Residents are our family away from our family.
“I want the new owner to ask themselves: Are you for the residents, are you for your staff? It could be you one day in these nursing homes. Anyone who has a heart that cares should put the healthcare workers who show up for the residents every day at the top of their list when making decisions.”
Strikes are set to start March 1st at both nursing homes, when Smilow’s official ownership begins.
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SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania is the state’s largest and fastest-growing union of nurses and healthcare workers, uniting tens of thousands of professional and technical employees, direct care workers, and service employees in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home- and community-based services, and state facilities across the Commonwealth. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania members are committed to improving the lives of health care workers and ensuring quality care and healthy communities for all Pennsylvanians.