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Healthcare Workers Picket Blue Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center

Certified Nursing Assistants and other workers with 1199SEIU fighting for new agreement that protects quality patient care at Stoughton facility

Stoughton, Mass. (June 15, 2017) – Dozens of healthcare workers hosted an informational picket outside Blue Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center to raise awareness of wage and staffing issues that are negatively impacting patient care.

Currently, the starting wage for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) at Blue Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center is just $11.50 an hour – barely above minimum wage. Management has not distributed funds allocated by the state to nursing homes to increase wages for direct care workers, critical funding that 1199SEIU healthcare workers successfully advocated to secure in the FY2017 state budget.

At the same time, management is shifting more healthcare costs onto workers and continues to promote unfair wage practices – paying CNAs at a private contracting facility $17 an hour. Management has become too reliant on these outside agency workers who have less experience at the facility – which is creating instability that undermines patient care.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East represents 85 workers at Blue Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center, who provide a range of patient care services. Employees recently rejected an agreement with management due to a number of wage and patient care issues. The agreement would have provided CNAs making $11.50 an hour with only a 21-cent hourly raise. Instead, workers are continuing to advocate for a fair starting wage and consistency in care for residents.

Blue Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center is located in Stoughton. The picket took place on June 14, one day before National Career Nursing Assistants’ Day

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Representing more than 56,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and over 400,000 workers across the East Coast, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all. 1199SEIU is part of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union.

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Links:

The Stoughton Journal, 6/20/17: "Healthcare workers picket Stoughton rehab center"

Facebook photo album from the picket