Genesis, also largest nursing home chain in country, under fire for poverty wages, healthcare gaffe, and psych facility closure
MASSACHUSETTS – The nation’s largest nursing home chain is drawing fire from Massachusetts caregivers over poverty wages and other issues as labor tensions mount at long term care facilities across the Bay State operated by private equity-owned Genesis HealthCare.
Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE: HCN) and Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBRA) are the publicly traded landowning companies for most Genesis facilities.
As Genesis continues a spree of nursing home buyouts across Massachusetts and the country, it is quickly becoming one of the local healthcare industry’s chief purveyors of poverty wages for caregiving staff. Genesis employees in Massachusetts are predominantly women and people of color and many are living at or below the poverty line.
In what some caregivers are calling a “tipping point” in the rising labor discord at area Genesis nursing homes, Genesis representative Anita Polli was recently confronted with feedback from caregivers that the current health insurance plans offered by Genesis are unaffordable for Genesis workers earning poverty wages.
Polli’s brazen response – imploring impoverished Genesis caregivers to instead apply for government health benefits – immediately added fuel to mounting labor tensions at the nursing home chain. Genesis owns at least 36 nursing homes in Massachusetts.
The gaffe by Polli drew fire from caregivers and senior advocates who agreed the remarks were a shameless display of employer tactics that hurt not just workers, but also taxpayers.
“Caregivers employed by Genesis are responsible for the lives and health of literally thousands of Massachusetts seniors. It matters to seniors that those caregivers have fair wages and affordable healthcare. When Genesis pays poverty wages, they are devaluing not only the lives of the caregivers, but also the lives of the seniors they care for,” said Barbara Mann, President of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council.
“It is a moral outrage for a major healthcare employer like Genesis, with several billion dollars in annual revenues, to deny affordable health coverage to the workers caring for our nation’s seniors. This is not a mom and pop nursing home. There is never an excuse for this level of greed and exploitation in the healthcare industry,” said Veronica Turner, Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the state’s largest healthcare union.
Genesis operates more than 400 nursing homes, assisted living facilities and behavioral health centers across 30 states. Despite this broad portfolio of revenue generating businesses, Genesis pays many of its workers at or near minimum wage.
Caregivers are planning a series of protests at Genesis facilities in Massachusetts, the first being this
Thursday, February 27, 2014, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. @ Meadow View Nursing Home, 134 North Street, North Reading, MA.
Protests are also being schedule for facilities in Wakefield, Falmouth, and Saugus, amongst others.
“Living under $9 per hour puts pressure on me each month. Living on this little at Genesis is not enough to pay rent, to feed my family,” said Gresencia Sanchez, a laundry aide at Meadow View.
“I have worked in Meadowview for three and a half years. As a mother of three kids, it’s difficult to pay rent, day care, and utilities. At Genesis, I work and live on an unrealistic wage,” said Hazel Robbles, a housekeeper at Meadow View.
Beyond the healthcare gaffe and poverty wages, caregivers were also provoked by the company’s handling of a recent psychiatric facility closure. After purchasing Glenwood Nursing Home in Lowell, MA, Genesis quickly moved to shut down the facility which had previously been operated by its competitor, Sun Healthcare.
Laid off caregivers, some of whom had worked at Glenwood for decades, requested the opportunity to transfer into open positions at nearby Genesis facilities, facilities that caregivers explain are understaffed. The request was denied and soon Genesis will have put more than eighty caregivers from Glenwood out on the street.
“I dedicated more than twenty years of my life to the seniors at Glenwood and I just can’t believe Genesis is telling me that the seniors in their care would not benefit from that experience. When many Genesis homes are understaffed to begin with, that is just impossible for me to accept,” said Given Makubika, a Certified Nursing Assistant who is one of the more than eighty caregivers from Glenwood who the company is denying the opportunity to transfer into jobs at other nearby facilities that are also operated by Genesis.
“My heart breaks for the residents who are worried about the move to another home,” said Marie Dorimon, another Certified Nursing Assistant being laid off at Glenwood. Marie says she feels close to residents who are troubled by the move, residents she would like to provide continuity and comfort to. “There are residents who I wish I could go with. There’s no reason we can’t go with some of these residents, so that they know they have someone at the new home who knows them.”
# # # #
Representing nearly 50,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and nearly 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.
MASSACHUSETTS – The nation’s largest nursing home chain is drawing fire from Massachusetts caregivers over poverty wages and other issues as labor tensions mount at long term care facilities across the Bay State operated by private equity-owned Genesis HealthCare.
Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE: HCN) and Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBRA) are the publicly traded landowning companies for most Genesis facilities.
As Genesis continues a spree of nursing home buyouts across Massachusetts and the country, it is quickly becoming one of the local healthcare industry’s chief purveyors of poverty wages for caregiving staff. Genesis employees in Massachusetts are predominantly women and people of color and many are living at or below the poverty line.
In what some caregivers are calling a “tipping point” in the rising labor discord at area Genesis nursing homes, Genesis representative Anita Polli was recently confronted with feedback from caregivers that the current health insurance plans offered by Genesis are unaffordable for Genesis workers earning poverty wages.
Polli’s brazen response – imploring impoverished Genesis caregivers to instead apply for government health benefits – immediately added fuel to mounting labor tensions at the nursing home chain. Genesis owns at least 36 nursing homes in Massachusetts.
The gaffe by Polli drew fire from caregivers and senior advocates who agreed the remarks were a shameless display of employer tactics that hurt not just workers, but also taxpayers.
“Caregivers employed by Genesis are responsible for the lives and health of literally thousands of Massachusetts seniors. It matters to seniors that those caregivers have fair wages and affordable healthcare. When Genesis pays poverty wages, they are devaluing not only the lives of the caregivers, but also the lives of the seniors they care for,” said Barbara Mann, President of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council.
“It is a moral outrage for a major healthcare employer like Genesis, with several billion dollars in annual revenues, to deny affordable health coverage to the workers caring for our nation’s seniors. This is not a mom and pop nursing home. There is never an excuse for this level of greed and exploitation in the healthcare industry,” said Veronica Turner, Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the state’s largest healthcare union.
Genesis operates more than 400 nursing homes, assisted living facilities and behavioral health centers across 30 states. Despite this broad portfolio of revenue generating businesses, Genesis pays many of its workers at or near minimum wage.
Caregivers are planning a series of protests at Genesis facilities in Massachusetts, the first being this
Thursday, February 27, 2014, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. @ Meadow View Nursing Home, 134 North Street, North Reading, MA.
Protests are also being schedule for facilities in Wakefield, Falmouth, and Saugus, amongst others.
“Living under $9 per hour puts pressure on me each month. Living on this little at Genesis is not enough to pay rent, to feed my family,” said Gresencia Sanchez, a laundry aide at Meadow View.
“I have worked in Meadowview for three and a half years. As a mother of three kids, it’s difficult to pay rent, day care, and utilities. At Genesis, I work and live on an unrealistic wage,” said Hazel Robbles, a housekeeper at Meadow View.
Beyond the healthcare gaffe and poverty wages, caregivers were also provoked by the company’s handling of a recent psychiatric facility closure. After purchasing Glenwood Nursing Home in Lowell, MA, Genesis quickly moved to shut down the facility which had previously been operated by its competitor, Sun Healthcare.
Laid off caregivers, some of whom had worked at Glenwood for decades, requested the opportunity to transfer into open positions at nearby Genesis facilities, facilities that caregivers explain are understaffed. The request was denied and soon Genesis will have put more than eighty caregivers from Glenwood out on the street.
“I dedicated more than twenty years of my life to the seniors at Glenwood and I just can’t believe Genesis is telling me that the seniors in their care would not benefit from that experience. When many Genesis homes are understaffed to begin with, that is just impossible for me to accept,” said Given Makubika, a Certified Nursing Assistant who is one of the more than eighty caregivers from Glenwood who the company is denying the opportunity to transfer into jobs at other nearby facilities that are also operated by Genesis.
“My heart breaks for the residents who are worried about the move to another home,” said Marie Dorimon, another Certified Nursing Assistant being laid off at Glenwood. Marie says she feels close to residents who are troubled by the move, residents she would like to provide continuity and comfort to. “There are residents who I wish I could go with. There’s no reason we can’t go with some of these residents, so that they know they have someone at the new home who knows them.”
# # # #
Representing nearly 50,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and nearly 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.
