PITTSBURGH (Newsradio KDKA) - 12 nursing homes across Pennsylvania have voted to authorize a strike, due to a staffing shortage crisis.
"Each week folks are in positions where they are one caregiver to 40 residents on a night shift, one caregiver to 20 residents on a day shift," said Matt Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, during the KDKA Radio Morning Show Thursday. "These are folks who are taking care of residents who need help with bathing, toileting, feeding, being able to get in and out of bed - totally dependent folks who need total care."
There are two major issues these workers want to see improved.
2.7 hours of care a day is the current minimum amount of care a person living in a nursing home must receive a day. "We believe that the regulation needs to be lifted to at least 4.1 hours of care a day," said Yarnell.
The healthcare union is also calling on Pennsylvania legislature to put a minimum of $250 million toward wage increases.
"For healthcare workers to make a deeply personal decision to call for a strike means that there's something really off on the inside of the facilities they are working in," Yarnell said.