1199 Workers Still Seeking Livable Wages

As of Wednesday, District 1199 New England, SEIU union members were still planning to go on strike at nursing homes this Friday, May 14, 2021, citing the need for livable wages and benefits and to ensure proper staffing ratios for quality services at nursing homes.

“These workers stayed at their jobs, while they were watching too many of the residents they loved and cared for die from COVID-19,” said Rep. Peter Tercyak (D-26), “worrying the whole time about bringing home the virus to their own families.”

One of the nursing homes whose workers are set to go in strike is Autumn Lake in New Britain. Strike notices were announced on April 30th.

“Good for these people,” said Rep. Tercyak, “who are willing to go on strike together to force their work to be valued appropriately, instead of going on strike one at at time when they can no longer afford to work for such low wages.”

“We are facing a critical situation in the nursing home industry with workers trapped in poverty,” said Rob Baril, president of District 1199 New England, SEIU.

The union has said that a recent proposal by Gov. Ned Lamont (D), “of a yearly 4.5% wage increase for the next two years would not be sufficient to establish a $20 per hour minimum in the union contracts for certified nursing assistants,” and would fall short of what would be needed to, “improve staffing numbers for direct care services.”

“Operators cannot find enough job applicants to hire at current industry wages,” said Baril. “The reduced staffing teams of existing nurses, assistants and other supports bear the brunt of ruthless workloads, and vulnerable patients and residents get less time of direct care.”

“Workers have suffered untold trauma in the last year,” Baril added, “with thousands of resident deaths and nearly two dozen worker fatalities in our union.”

Two-thousand, eight hundred union workers at 26 nursing homes are set to go on strike this Friday, May 14th at 6:00am. An additional 600 workers at six more nursing homes are set to join them on strike on May 28th.

Originally 3,400 workers at 33 nursing homes had been set to go on strike on Friday, but 600 workers at seven nursing homes delayed their strike to the May 28th strike start date.

Baril leveled withering criticism at the owner of those seven nursing homes, saying, “RegalCare operator Eliyahu Mirlis should not be allowed to run any nursing homes in Connecticut and he should be banned altogether from the healthcare business. Period.”

“We as a union cannot stand by to allow a nursing home operator like Mr. Mirlis and the Department of Public Health to put hundreds of residents at risk by evacuating them to other facilities because Mr. Mirlis did not take our strike notice seriously on April 30th,” said Baril. “We are reissuing strike notices at RegalCare facilities for May 28th starting at 6:00 AM, and we demand that the Department of Public Health and Mr. Mirlis meet their legal duties for resident safety with no further delays.”