Nursing homes become a hotbed of labor activism: 'Workers are finally saying enough is enough'

Jun. 17—Nursing home workers picketed outside Autumn View Health Care Facility on Thursday, chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, these greedy bosses got to go" and "We work, we sweat, put real money in our checks" as cars whizzed by on Southwestern Boulevard in Hamburg.

It was one of four McGuire Group nursing homes where union members held informational pickets Thursday. At each site, union members sought to raise awareness surrounding what they called understaffing and low wages, two of the primary issues in ongoing negotiations with McGuire for new labor contracts covering about 540 workers across the four nursing homes.

It all comes at a particularly active time in health care labor negotiations in Western New York. The McGuire Group facilities are four of 12 for-profit nursing homes in the area where labor contracts — covering more than 1,200 employees — have expired, with the workers' union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, in the midst of coordinated job actions across those facilities such as holding one-day strike votes. On Wednesday, caregivers held a similar picket at Fiddler's Green Manor in Springville.

Negotiations also are ongoing at other Western New York health care facilities, none larger than 1199SEIU and the Communications Workers of America Local 1168 bargaining with Kaleida Health on behalf of 6,300 employees. But nursing homes, which saw staffing become further depleted during the pandemic, have been a constant source of labor unrest for many months.

"I think right now after working through the pandemic for two, now three years, nursing home workers are finally saying enough is enough," said Grace Bogdanove, vice president for 1199SEIU's Western New York nursing home division.

Workers at the four McGuire Group facilities — Autumn View; Garden Gate in Cheektowaga; Northgate in North Tonawanda; and Seneca Health Care Center in West Seneca — also voted Thursday on whether to authorize a one-day strike, though the voting results won't be released until later this month. The union will return to the bargaining table with McGuire Group on Wednesday.

McGuire Group did not immediately provide a comment. The four facilities all have four- or five-star ratings in the federal five-star rating system for nursing homes, though the nursing homes' staffing ratings — based on nursing hours per resident per day — are all two or three stars.

A major issue in the discussions revolves around low wages for service workers, such as dietary aides and housekeepers, who can start at the regional minimum wage of $13.20 an hour, which is hurting the facility's ability to attract and retain employees, several union workers said.

"Look at your local fast food chains, they're advertising $16 an hour," said Cindy Janus, a licensed practical nurse who has worked at Autumn View for 21 years. "Our staff is making $13. Who wants to work in health care for $13 an hour?"

The union is calling for a $15 minimum wage for service workers, higher starting rates for new caregivers and wage scales for experienced workers.

Janus and other workers said they're prepared to take further action if that's what it takes to land the kind of contract that will help them improve staffing and patient care at Autumn View.

The picketing comes as the state's more than 600 nursing homes are scrambling to comply with a New York staffing law that took effect April 1 and requires each facility to provide 3.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Nursing home operators should be documenting their efforts to follow the law, since the Health Department will consider mitigating factors when assessing penalties for noncompliance at a later date, said Health Department spokesperson Jeffrey Hammond.

On Thursday, under the shade and about halfway between the union workers on the sidewalk and the Autumn View walls, facility resident Lynice Searles sat in her wheelchair holding a union sign that read, "Our work has value." Her son standing behind her, Searles said she feels Autumn View's caregivers take care of residents the best they can given the staffing crunch.

"They don't make much money," she said. "We lose good people because they can go to a restaurant and make more money."

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