For Immediate Release:
Contact: Mindy Berman, 518-229-0486

Bronx-based Centers Health Care is refusing sufficient wages for nursing home workers who are STILL risking their health and safety while caring for the frail and elderly during the worse pandemic in recent history; most have not received a raise since 2018.

When: Wednesday, February 9, 2022
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.:
3:00 for press avail, interviews, photos, videos

Where: Delmar Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing
125 Rockefeller Rd, Delmar

Who: 1199SEIU nursing home workers: C.N.A.s, LPNs, recreation aides, housekeeping & dietary workers and more. Community and labor allies and elected officials will be supporting the workers at the vigil.

Why: Workers have sacrificed wage increases for years in order to save the financially distressed facility, the former Good Samaritan Nursing Home. When the skilled nursing facility and the adjacent adult home were sold to Centers Health Care, the workers once again agreed to give up wage increases, with the condition that the contract would be re-opened in 2021 to re-negotiate wage increases.

Meanwhile, during this time, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated already inadequate conditions at the home, such as short-staffing and lack of adequate resources. Today, the nursing home is extremely short-staffed; caregivers are working around the clock and the fatigue and stress often mean that qualified healthcare workers leave, making the situation worse.

There is also concern about the lack of continuity of care for residents as the owner increasingly relies on temporary agency staffers to supplement the chronic understaffing of full-time workers. It is well documented that continuity of care and resident/caregiver relationships are the cornerstones of quality resident care and health. It’s a vicious cycle when experienced, qualified caregivers quit their jobs due to overwork and stress, leaving the nursing home with the same number of residents (or more), but fewer staff — and inviting burnout.

Centers has had the opportunity to work with 1199SEIU to resolve this problem, but instead, they have been throwing wrenches into the bargaining process, making proposals they know are unacceptable, thereby stalling.

1199 members don’t only “work” at Delmar Center. Many live in the community and also have strong relationships with the residents and their families. At the height of the pandemic, these caregivers were the only “family” the residents had.

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. We represent over 450,000 nurses and caregivers throughout Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Florida. Our mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all. 1199seiu.org