Nursing home workers reach agreement with Guardian; others set to strike
Workers at several nursing homes set to strike Sept. 2 have reached a tentative agreement with Guardian Healthcare, SEIU Healthcare PA, which represents nursing home workers, announced Tuesday.
The agreement ends strikes set for Friday at 10 facilities, including Uniontown Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center and Waynesburg Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, whose staffs helped negotiate terms of the agreement.
However, employees at 14 homes owned by Comprehensive Healthcare, including The Grove in Washington, and Priority Healthcare, are still scheduled to walk off the job Friday.
A supervisor at The Grove declined to comment Tuesday.
“We have worked hard to reach a fair agreement with SEIU that shows Guardian’s continued commitment to our team members,” Michael J. Herald, president and CEO of Guardian Healthcare, said in a news release.
Union members spent the summer negotiating with Guardian for increased wages, employer-paid health insurance, assurance that employers would follow state regulations regarding nursing home staffing, and a written commitment not to interfere with the rights of those workers who choose to form their own union.
The tentative agreement has been recommended unanimously by committees formed by workers from various facilities, including both Uniontown and Waynesburg Healthcare and Rehab Centers. Workers are ratifying contracts this week, SEIU announced.
“We are excited to build a deeper labor and management partnership which has been codified in these new agreements covering over 1,200 nursing home workers across 18 facilities,” Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, said in a news release. “With this agreement, Guardian has set an important precedent for other nursing home chains in PA and we hope others will follow their lead.”
Four other nursing homes owned by Comprehensive Healthcare and Priority Healthcare filed a strike notice this week and plan to join the work stoppage Sept. 9 unless an agreement is reached.
“Nursing home workers are doing whatever it takes to hold these employers accountable,” Yarnell said. “Workers came together with legislators, the governor and the nursing home industry associations earlier this year to secure this investment into staffing and care to get a handle on the crisis and begin the reform we need. As the largest health-care workers union in the state, we expect those funds to be used as intended, and know our communities and legislators expect the same.”