Nursing facility workers picket
More than 70 caregivers from McMurray Hills Manor held an informational picket in front of the West McMurray Road nursing home Monday, demanding better staffing, more training and other changes to improve retention and recruitment at the facility.
The workers’ contract expired May 9. The workers are all members of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.
“We’re in negotiations, and they weren’t going well,” Alice Hadrych, a licensed practical nurse who has been at McMurray Hills for four years, said in explanation of the protest.
The big issue is staffing, said Hadrych and other McMurray Hills employees. The home’s owner, American Health Foundation, based in Ohio, owns the not-for-profit nursing facility, which has just more than 100 residents. American Health Foundation could not be reached for comment.
“It really seems like management’s proposals are intended to make recruitment and retention worse than it already is,” Hadrych said. “We work for our residents, but we also work so we can spend quality time within our families.”
Both Hadrych and Laurie MacFarlane, an LPN who has worked at McMurray Hills Manor for 15 years, said management wants staff to work six straight weekends before getting the seventh weekend off. Currently, employees have every other weekend off.
“Our proposals are meant to allow us to take care of our residents and have enough workers to have reasonable work schedules so we can enjoy time with our loved ones,” Hadrych said.
Amanda Gray, a nurse’s aide, agreed.
“Management’s proposal for scheduling would create even more barriers toward staff retention and quality care,” she said.
One way to rectify staffing issues, Hadrych and MacFarlane said, is to make part-time employees full-time workers.
“We want more staffing,” MacFarlane said.
Union members and management are scheduled to return to bargaining June 1.
There are no plans for a second informational picket, employees said. Also, there are no plans for a work stoppage.
“We want people to know we are trying to settle this,” Hadrych said.