Hamburg, N.Y. (WBEN) - Nursing home workers and members of 1199SEIU took to the streets on Tuesday to take part in a one-day strike outside of nine facilities across Western New York. These workers are seeking fair wages, with a minimum wage of $15 per-hour.
"I've been here for 21 years, and when I first started here, this was a great company, it was great place to work. We had plenty of time to take care of our patients, we had sufficient staff. We had four nurses and five or six aides. Now we work with two nurses and three aides, and that's for 46 patients," said Cindy Janus, a nurse at Autumn View Health Care Facility on Southwestern Boulevard in Hamburg. "I work the night shift. We work with one nurse, and sometimes one aide. If we're lucky, we have two aides for 46 patients. Can you tell me that these patients are getting quality care? They're not.
"We need to bump up our wages, and that's the only way we're going to get people into health care. And we need quality people, not people who just don't care, we need people to make these residents feel like they are family, because they are family to us."
Workers from Autumn View lined up along the sidewalk of Southwestern Boulevard on Tuesday, as part of their one-day strike. Other nursing homes that took part in a one-day strike on Tuesday included facilities in Springville, Gowanda, Buffalo and West Seneca.
Four other nursing homes will see staff members taking part in a one-day strike on Wednesday in Lockport, Williamsville, Cheektowaga and North Tonawanda.
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"I'm a new nurse here, I just started a couple months ago. Being so new, I see everyone. These people, they're great at what they do. They love their job, all of them," said nurse Sarah Davidson outside Autumn View on Tuesday. "From housekeeping, dietary, aids, nursing, these people make this place run and they love what they do. They just deserve a living wage. It's just ridiculous, and they deserve better for what they love and what they deserve."
Davidson also says it's upsetting to see the current path of where the healthcare industry is heading. She believes something needs to be better, and it needs a change now.
"Someone needs to step in, somebody needs to do something and stop letting this fly by. It's everywhere, health care all-around. It just needs to change," Davidson said. "To me, I'm not happy with my pay as a new nurse. I couldn't imagine being here 20 years, but at these companies, they know that. These facilities, they know that a good nurse, a good aide, a good staff is going to stay, regardless of the pay, because they love their patients."
It's not just the healthcare workers who were out on the streets on strike on Tuesday. Even cook Rebecca Pettis was out there in support of better wages for members of 1199SEIU.
"I've been here 31 years, and so much change in 31 years," said Pettis. "I come here every day to cook good food, because they don't have much to look forward to. Food's one of them. They don't have family, so we love them. We're their family."
Pettis is hoping to see better wages for all workers in nursing homes, because she wants to see her co-workers be treated fair, while also possibly attracting others to work at these facilities.
"We are short every single day. The turnover is higher than it's ever been, and we just need good staff here to take care of the residents," Pettis said.
Although Tuesday's strike is just for one day, the workers on the sidewalk of Southwestern Boulevard and elsewhere across Western New York are hopeful their message can be brought to light about how desperate things are in the healthcare industry.
"I think a lot of people don't understand the short staffing here. We have a lot of agency people in this facility, and we never had that before in the last several months," Janus said. "They've started bringing agency people in because we don't have enough staff. But when you bring agency people in, they're just coming in to do a job and going home. These people have become our family over the years. We care about them, we love them. We'll go the extra mile for them. That's what makes a difference to these people. We want them to feel like they're important to us."
As for how long the workers plan on fighting this fight, many of them say whatever it takes.
"Until they do something about it, because otherwise it's pointless. They need to change it, and they need to change it now," Davidson said.