Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Workers at 11 local nursing homes, represented by 1199SEIU, are hopeful to have new labor contracts tentatively agreed to before a strike would commence Tuesday morning.
Shameka Burnette-Matthews, administrative organizer with 1199SEIU, says negotiations with the nursing home facilities will continue on Monday with the hopes that a strike can be avoided.
"Our members are willing to strike over the quality benefits they deserve, but again, they'd like to be inside, taking care of their residents, and reach a tentative deal before tomorrow morning," said Burnette-Matthews on Monday during an appearance on WBEN.
A small number of Western New York nursing homes have been able to reach agreements on new labor contracts for its staff, but workers at facilities operated mostly by Elderwood and the McGuire Group are still waiting to see if either company will come back to the bargaining table. Burnette-Matthews says both companies have either refused to come to the table, or have only been willing to bargain for a short amount of time.
"The Elderwood facilities, we have been in negotiations since last summer, and they implemented the last, best and final from their management team in March, without even giving the membership time to vote on it. And by the time the votes were done, then the membership had voted the last, best and final down, and Elderwood went ahead and implemented it. They unilaterally implemented their best and final, and the members, it's not something they wanted," Burnette-Matthews explained. "The McGuire Group did not initially come to the table until we started with our job actions, and we've now had to have a mediator come in during negotiations.
"10 out of 11 of the facilities are for profit, and we really need our for profit out-of-town owners to make investments and to improve the staffing levels here. They don't see what's going on on the day-to-day because they're not here, so we really, really need them to pay attention and what's going on here in Western New York."
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Burnette-Matthews says the main goal of these labor contract talks is over quality benefits for the nursing home workers, with the biggest issue at the forefront of negotiations being staffing.
"Staffing rolls into the complete package of the quality benefits. That's our pension plans, our child care fund, health insurance, quality wages, and, of course, that'll help with recruitment and retention," she said.
Wages are also a talking point with negotiations, with some of the facilities having already agreeing to new labor contracts seeing up to a 22% wage increase.
"Right now, the rates are extremely low, barely over minimum wage for our service workers. So we're looking for significant increases across the board," Burnette-Matthews noted.
According to 1199SEIU, nursing home workers would love to see some sort of settlement for all remaining facilities before Tuesday morning, but acknowledges with the way it's been going with Elderwood and the McGuire Group, they're not sure that'll be possible.
"We are willing [to negotiate] all day. We started at 6 a.m. this morning, we'll go all afternoon, all evening, all facilities. Our organizers, our vice president, everyone has made themselves available to be able to bargain with each employer that is listed to have a strike take place," Burnette-Matthews detailed.
In the meantime, Burnette-Matthews says the members of 1199SEIU are excited to be sticking together, and knowing they are not alone in this fight.
"Other health care workers are all walking out together, but they're also worried about their residents," she said. "These are health care workers, their passion is taking care of their residents. They have built bonds with these residents, they want to make sure that they're taken care of. They have even went to management themselves and said, 'Can we reach some type of deal so we do not have to do this?' But most importantly, they have to be able to take care of their families and themselves, or they can't take care of the residents."