The budget cuts to bedside care in Florida’s nursing homes, passed last year, have impacted thousands of nursing homes residents and nursing home workers. Staffing levels were reduced from a minimum weekly average of 2.9 hours of care per resident per day to 2.5 hours, which shortens the amount of time caregivers spend with residents by 18 minutes per day.

On November 29, 2011, a majority of the healthcare workers at Good Samaritan Medical Center became the 18th hospital in Florida to cast ballots in favor of forming a union with 1199SEIU.

1199SEIU healthcare workers at 19 HCA-affiliated hospitals in Florida made history by voting overwhelmingly on December 6 to approve collective bargaining agreements that will impact 10,000workers.

This week, healthcare workers at Good Samaritan Medical Center became the fifth Tenet Healthcare-owned hospital in seven months to cast a ballot in favor of joining our union, 1199SEIU Florida.

In response to new state legislation that cuts safe staffing levels and bedside care in Florida nursing homes by 18 minutes per resident per day, 1199SEIU Florida caregivers have launched the “Every Minute Counts” campaign to protect nursing home residents from potentially life-threatening health risks. Nearly 300 caregivers ratified the campaign at an 1199SEIU Florida Joint Delegate’s Assembly in St. Petersburg last month.

Some 555 registered nurses, technicians and assistive staff at West Boca Medical Center/Tenet in Boca Raton, Florida, voted to on October 4 to unite in 1199SEIU. The RNs voted 183 to 44 in favor of 1199SEIU; the combined unit, 140 to 39.

St. Petersburg, FL – Today, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry will join 300 Florida healthcare workers at the 1199SEIU Joint Delegate’s Assembly in addressing Florida’s joblessness and its impact on the working class. Mary Kay Henry and other union leaders will speak to the importance of creating jobs in the healthcare industry to rebuild Florida’s economy and ensure access to quality healthcare for all.

Our union bargaining team made huge strides and even made history during this week’s contract negotiations sessions on the west coast. We also negotiated to extend our contract at our six facilities with union contracts to Sept. 30.

After Florida enacted a new law rolling back minimum safe staffing requirements in the states nursing homes on July 1, 1199SEIU members at Avanté at Lake Worth Nursing Home saw an opportunity to maintain higher safe staffing levels by negotiating them in their union contract.

On August 11, 1199SEIU members, including President George Gresham and Executive Vice President Monica Russo, joined 200 activists in front of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services office in Miami to demand just immigration policies for Haitians.