Concerned Nursing Home Workers Will Hold Informational Picket for Quality Care at Glens Falls Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation

November 28, 2018

Media Release:

Informational Picket: November 28, 2018

Contact: Angela Benson, 518.415.5003

Caregivers for the community’s elderly & frail citizens are sounding the alarm about staffing and quality care issues

This afternoon, on Wednesday, November 28, nursing home caregivers will be picketing at Glens Falls Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing (formerly The Stanton Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.) Members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East will shed light on the corporate owner’s lack of attention to safe staffing, decent wages and benefits, and its impact on quality resident care. They will be outside the facility from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. at 152 Sherman Ave, in Glens Falls.

The Glens Falls nursing home is a 120-bed, medium-sized skilled nursing facility (SNF) with for-profit, corporate ownership. It was purchased by Centers Health Care (CHC) in 2017. According to U.S. News & World Report 2018-19 Nursing Home Finder, the facility has an overall rating of Worse than Average.1

Angela Benson, a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at the home for six years said, “Staff turnover here is a big problem, but that’s not a surprise when workers can’t afford to take care of our own families. What choice is there other than to find a job somewhere else, when the Centers offers below market wages and benefits?”

CHC in New York has been expanding in recent years; currently there are 31 skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and five facilities are identified as consultants.

1199SEIU members at Glens Falls, together with four other CHC facilities (at New Paltz, Schenectady, Troy, and Minoa) have been negotiating a contract to no avail for almost a year. The workers’ proposals are not out of the ordinary. Market wage increases, affordable health benefits, and the ability to retire with security are standard in healthcare industry contracts. Workers and management generally agree that these provisions help to attract and retain qualified employees and protect continuity of resident care.

“Our residents and their families depend on us to provide quality care and we do that under challenging conditions. It’s the owners responsibility to ensure that we have what we need, so we can do our jobs and take care of our own families at the same time,” said Benson “That’s not a lot to ask of a big for-profit company like the Centers.”

The 1199SEIU bargaining unit includes about 112 workers: CNAs, LPNs, dietary, housekeeping, laundry, and maintenance workers, recreation aides, and receptionists. Their current contract expired on November 30, 2017. The terms of conditions of that contract are currently in effect.

The informational picket is not a strike. Workers will picket on their own time—lunch, breaks, a day off, etc. There will be no work stoppage. Shifts and services will not be interrupted.

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. We represent over 450,000 nurses and caregivers throughout New York State and New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Florida. Our mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all.

1 https://health.usnews.com/best-nursing-homes/area/ny/glens-falls center-for-rehabilitation-and-nursing-335306