Fed-up 1199 caregivers at Morningside House in the Bronx, NY held a spirited informational picket June 19 to protest management’s ongoing disrespect of workers there, and the nursing home’s failure to negotiate new policies before implementing them.

Morningside bosses have, without notice to workers, changed how accrued sick, vacation and personal time may be used, filled vacant Union positions with agency workers and instituted changes in the administration of state licensing exams to the facility’s nursing staff.

Morningside House is tucked into a residential neighborhood of tree-lined streets. Workers enlivened the sleepy block with chants of “We Gotta Feed Our Children. We Gotta Pay Our Rent. Ask Dr. Smith Where the Money Went” and “They Say Cut Back! We Say Fight Back!”

Marie St. Amie, an LPN at Morningside House for 38 years, walked the picket line to demand fair treatment for the institution’s nurses. St. Amie, along with several nursing staff members, was fired for failing a computerized version of a state-mandated certification exam. St. Amie, unused to computers, says she wasn’t given enough time to prepare for the test’s format.

“I immediately went to the Union and we’re seeing what we can do. I believe that [management] used it as an excuse,” says St. Amie. “I think that it’s because they just don’t want certain people here. I have never, ever had a problem in 38 years. There has never been anything in my file until last year. They are targeting certain people.”

Some 300 1199ers work at Morningside House and over the years the Union and management had a cooperative working relationship. That changed with the institution’s recent sale, said LPN Sheila Wright. Now, workers with 35 years of service are losing their earned vacation time to management’s strict guidelines and there is no consultation with nurses about when or how the state exam is administered. LPN Wright says she was putting on her coat to go home after her shift when she was informed that she had to take her test.

“They didn’t tell us when they were going to do it,” she says “[Management] thinks they can just make up any policy and do anything or not abide by any agreement and do whatever they want.”

Delegate Sharon Lloyd, a CNA, says workers have had enough. “We want them to bring the nurses back, give back our banked and accrued holiday and sick time and show the staff some respect and dignity,” said Lloyd. “And we’re prepared to stay out here until they do.”