Union/Demonstration Tactics
Posted by Patti on September 22nd, 2005 / Print This Post
Yet another article about how unions can save nursing homes. I’m going to look around to see if there are other sites that can show both sides of this issue. I do not believe unions are good for employees, nursing staff and residents. For all the benefits you might get, you could end up losing a place to work for.
LONG BRANCH –– Nursing home employees demonstrated here Saturday to advocate for improved conditions for healthcare workers and the people they care for at facilities statewide.“This is really a chain-of-hope type of get together to raise public awareness about conditions at nursing homes in the state,” Roy Garcia, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said last week.
“[Nursing home] workers and caregivers want to express the hardships involved in providing quality care when [nursing facilities] are so understaffed.”
The demonstration was held outside Monmouth Care Center on Bath Avenue from noon to 2 p.m. Workers from Monmouth Care, Victoria House in Matawan, Pinebrook in Englishtown, and several other nursing homes participated.
Workers at Monmouth Cares are members of the SEIU local 1199 New Jersey and their contract expired March 31. The workers are currently negotiating for a contract that offers “equal pay for equal work,” Garcia said.
“Workers are having a hard time providing quality care to residents when they are understaffed,” Garcia said.
“Almost 80 to 90 percent of the staff at [Monmouth Care Center] provides hands-on care to residents and when you are short-staffed, that can be a real problem.”
The average state nursing home caregiver earns $7 to $10 an hour, said Garcia, adding that they are working at these wages in facilities that are under-staffed.
According to Garcia, Monmouth Cares is the third lowest staffed nursing home facility in Monmouth County, with workers there able to spend an average of 2.7 hours per resident per day.
In Monmouth County, which has 32 nursing homes, the average is 3.69 hours per resident, he said, and in New Jersey, which has 356 nursing homes, the average is 3.7 hours.
The recommendation by the government agency the Center for Medicaid, is 4.1 hours per resident per day, according to Garcia.
I’m not against better working conditions and better wages. I just think there are better ways to go about getting these things. We can make a huge difference ourselves, with our working conditions. Good team work, good supervison and support can make the world of difference. Pay is something that we earn; when you consider that our pay is based upon what the government issues for payments, we can’t blame the nursing home. It’s really our own tax dollars that pay us.
Read the rest of this article —>