WILLIAMSVILLE (WBEN) - On Monday afternoon, dozens of caregivers from Elderwood in Williamsville gathered in front of the facility to protest what they call unfair compensation given the current working conditions.
Caregivers at Elderwood in Williamsville are holding a picket to bring awareness to low wages, lack of hazard pay, poor staffing and inadequate health insurance. Similar protests are taking place in more than 25 cities across the country. @NewsRadio930 pic.twitter.com/QI49ZxS60n
— Brendan Keany (@BrendanKeany)
July 20, 2020 "Workers here have been dealing on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis since early March - trying to protect their residents, putting themselves and their own families at risk by coming to work every day, working short-staffed, working without the proper safety equipment," said Marshall Bertram, and administrative organizer for 1199SEIU. "We've been asking Elderwood to do the right thing and pay workers for their hazard, for their difficulty in dealing with this situation, and we've got the runaround from the employer for months.
1199SEIU members also are demanding that employers confront issues of systemic racism.
"We cannot achieve economic justice without racial justice," said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry in a statement. "From our nation's founding, white supremacy and economic exploitation have been inextricably linked. Today, in this national moment of reckoning, working people are demanding fundamental changes to America's broken system. They're coming together in the Strike for Black Lives to declare that until Black people can thrive, none of our communities can thrive."
