Caregivers at Fayette Health and Rehabilitation Center held a 24 hour strike that began at 7am on Thursday, May 22. The 50 service, maintenance and technical employees at Fayette who belong to 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East are fighting to end poverty pay at the nursing home.The action came more than a year into tense negotiations for a new union contract at the nursing home. Currently, pay at Fayette is so low that many workers hold multiple jobs and quality for public assistance. Over 80 percent of Fayette caregivers make less than $14.92 an hour, the wage that qualifies a single parent and child for food stamps. A quarter of Fayette workers make less than the poverty level for a family of four, which is $11.47 an hour.Laundry worker Rashida Teombe has been employed at Fayette for 11 years, and currently makes $9.86 an hour—only 86 cents more than the starting wage for the position. “We just want management to treat us the way they would want to be treated,” she says.The nursing home’s Ohio-based owner, CommuniCare, is proposing wage caps for all union positions, and employees who are at or above the cap will no longer receive across-the-board raises. In addition, workers’ service would not be rewarded with guaranteed raises; wage increases would only be granted based on the facility’s profit margin. Another hotly contested issue is management’s threat to end the Training and Upgrading Fund.Fayette workers made the decision to move forward with the strike after the nursing home submitted its “last, best and final” offer in November, 2013, which fell short of the union’s proposal for a 3.25 percent wage increase during each year of the contract.Among the difficulties that the facility’s workers face is chronic understaffing. Six of CommuniCare’s eight Maryland facilities—including Fayette—are ranked in the bottom 50 out of 223 Maryland nursing facilities for having the lowest total staffing hours per resident per day.“Fayette caregivers work in challenging conditions every day,” says union organizer Taren Peterson. “Workers deserve to be compensated fairly for the quality services they provide. Many Fayette workers are on public assistance and already paying up to $200 a month for health care. Management needs to understand that part of providing quality care to patients means paying workers a living wage.”The strike came at the heels of a three-day strike at Johns Hopkins Hospital this April, during which hundreds of 1199SEIU workers demonstrated against the hospital’s low wages with mass community support.Unless a contract is settled, the next bargaining date is set for June 26, which will proceed with a mediator.- See more at: http://www.1199seiu.org/maryland_caregivers_strike_to_demand_contract_and_protest_poverty_pay_at_nursing_home#sthash.Ro6k4a49.dpuf