MIAMI – Members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, Florida’s largest union of healthcare workers, have launched an intensive contract campaign calling for improved wages, protections and safer staffing levels for patients and caregivers that would help solve the ongoing care crisis in nursing homes across the state. 

Contracts between 1199SEIU long-term care (LTC) members and nursing home management are set to expire in almost 50 Florida facilities this year, directly impacting approximately 4,000 Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), dietary aides, housekeeping and other workers and 10,000 patients.

Many of these workers are paid less than $15 per hour, while the nursing home industry makes billions of dollars in profits each year, largely funded with taxpayer dollars. 

“Part of the issue is an influx of out-of-state private equity firms buying up Florida nursing homes.  The prime directive of private equity is to make money, not provide care,” said Margarette Nerette, VP of Long-Term Care for 1199SEIU Florida. “We need facility owners to put patients before profit, and to be transparent and accountable for the billions of our tax dollars they receive each year.” 

Contract negotiations already have begun between 1199SEIU members and 11 Florida facilities operated by Aspire Health Group, one of the largest rehabilitation and nursing home companies in the nation.   

Securing a living wage, necessary benefits and safer staffing levels are key priorities for long-term care workers who often are paid poverty-level rates.  In a particularly sad irony, some of these dedicated healthcare workers can’t afford health coverage for themselves.  

“We love our patients and are committed to provide the best quality care to them, but we have to protect ourselves and support our own families, too,” said Diane Wells, a CNA and 1199SEIU member in Central Florida.  “Caregivers are leaving this work because we can’t afford to pay Florida’s sky-high housing and so many other costs.” 

 Reduced staffing standards passed by Florida’s legislature and signed by the governor in recent years also have added to work stress, burnout and high turnover in nursing homes because the hard job becomes even more difficult when caregivers must tend to more patients and tasks at once.

“Lower staffing and training requirements mean higher levels of risk for caregivers and patients,” said Mary Barnes, a CNA and 1199SEIU member in South Florida.  “We’re already at very concerning levels, and this will continue in a dangerous spiral unless facility owners across the state commit to safer staffing levels and working conditions that will attract and retain caregivers.”

Recently, the Biden Administration passed significant national staffing standards that will improve upon Florida care requirements over the next few years, but the current 1199SEIU bargaining campaign is demanding immediate and contractual obligations for safe staffing from nursing home wners.  

“Nursing homes make up an essential part of the overall delivery of long-term care for Floridians,” said Nerette.  “Staffing and retention always has been an issue because it can be a complicated and back-breaking job for very little pay. Add the pandemic where workers were at ground zero of Covid risk, lowered safe-staffing rules in Florida and the state’s skyrocketing housing and insurance costs, and we have a perfect storm of pressure. To help relieve this crisis and to better protect patients and their caregivers across the state, we’re fighting for new contracts that respect us, protect us, pay and staff us.”

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest union of healthcare workers in the country representing more than 450,000 nurses and healthcare workers nationwide, including more than 35,000 in nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities throughout Florida.