Statement of Milly Silva, Executive Vice President, on Supreme Court DAPA/DACA decision

Caregivers Demand Fair Union Contracts Including $15 per hour, Standard Wage Scales Based on Experience, and Better Staffing Levels While For-Profit Downstate/NJ Owners File Lawsuit Against NYS Nursing Home Reforms Requiring 3.5 Hours of Care and Investments to Improve Staffing Levels For Residents

When he was murdered in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. This is well known. Less well known is that is that he was in Tennessee to launch his Poor Peoples’ Campaign. This civil disobedience movement for economic justice would culminate in a march and encampment of tens of thousands of unemployed and working poor in Washington, DC just two months later.

Buffalo, NY - Today, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1168 and 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East released a new joint survey of nurses, therapists, technologists, clerical staff, and other professional and service workers at Kaleida Health demonstrating widespread concerns around working conditions caused by understaffing inside the multi-tiered hospital system. The current union contract, which was set to expire on May 31, was extended to June 30 as negotiations for the new contract continue. Kaleida currently has more than 1,000 unfilled positions, and workers are raising concerns about their own safety as well as the safety of their patients, and demanding critical changes that will allow the hospital to attract and retain staff to improve the quality of care.

Healthcare workers, members of 1199SEIU Florida, wanted to help the community where many of them live and work. So, they made a donation of more than $26,000 to Sant La. The organization, which is based in North Miami, has been helping Haitian immigrants and residents in the community for more than 20 years.

Caregivers Demand Fair Union Contracts Including $15 per hour, Standard Wage Scales Based on Experience, and Better Staffing Levels While For-Profit Downstate/NJ Owners File Lawsuit Against NYS Nursing Home Reforms Requiring 3.5 Hours of Care and Investments to Improve Staffing Levels For Residents

Buffalo, NY - 1199SEIU nursing home workers in Western New York continue their fight for fair contracts at 12 area for-profit nursing homes. More than 1,200 local caregivers are set to join a nationwide day of action happening in more than a dozen states on June 8, uniting their local demand for fair wages and going national with their campaign.

Press statement

WHY: Twelve for-profit nursing home contracts in Upstate New York covering 1,200 healthcare workers all have expired. Nursing Home workers are represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and will join a nationwide call to action across 12 states as thousands of workers demand industrywide nursing home reforms.

This spring, the 1199SEIU Homecare Division collaborated with Pratt Institute and the Highbridge Community Development Corporation.

WHY: Twelve for-profit nursing home contracts covering 1,200 healthcare workers all have expired. Nursing Home workers are represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.