Healthcare workers at Sprain Brook Manor Nursing Home held an informational picket in front of the Scarsdale, New York nursing home to protest for-profit owner Adira’s business model of putting company profits before quality resident care. 1199SEIU caregivers picketed to bring public awareness to the indisputable link between standards for workers and the quality of care that nursing home residents receive.

Ten years ago, the workers at Sprain Brook Manor voted overwhelmingly to become members of 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East. They have been struggling to reach a collective bargaining agreement since then. Their priorities continue to be quality standards that ensure quality care for the frail and vulnerable nursing home residents.

Recently, a federal court issued an injunction that forced Sprain Brook Manor administration to reinstate wages for many workers whose pay was illegally cut to raise company profits. In addition to the disrespect shown to workers by Adira management, lack of adequate staff, supply shortages, poor pay, and inadequate benefits have left Sprain Brook Manor facing a “revolving door” of staff turnover and the loss of the “consistency of care” that nursing home residents so desperately need.

Adira’s disregard for residents’ needs was evidenced again, when earlier this month, a state court judge temporarily stopped the sale of Michael Malotz Skilled Nursing Pavilion in Yonkers to Adira in order investigate the impact of that sale on quality care and caregivers based upon the “failure of the buyer to hire the caregivers who have been tending to the residents for years.”

“The link between workers being adequately valued by the ownership, as shown by a contract that improves pay and benefits, and the quality of care that the residents receive is clear. By offering better pay and benefits the nursing home will be able to hire and maintain more experie more experienced caregivers, improving both the consistency and quality of care to the standards that residents deserve,” said 1199SEIU Vice President Greg Speller.