(New York, NY) -- On Monday, January 30th at 12 noon, nursing home caregivers, students and street theater performers conducted a satirical manhunt outside of NYU Law School for School Trustee and “corporate outlaw” Daniel Straus. Sheriff 99% joined NYU Students and caregivers in calling on Daniel Straus to stop robbing workers of their rights. One percent “outlaw” Straus runs Care One and HealthBridge nursing home companies, which have violated federal labor law and locked caregivers out of their jobs.

The crowd, sporting stickers that read “Sheriff 99%,” included locked out caregivers from a Healthbridge nursing home facility in Connecticut. After months of negotiations, over the holidays the company took the harsh step of locking out 100 workers at the West River Health Care Center in Milford, Connecticut. The company has not yet allowed these caregivers to come back to work.

“When Healthbridge locked me out it broke my heart but not my spirit,” said Barbara McFadden, a Certified Nursing Assistant at West River and a dedicated caregiver for 37 years. “We can't let 1 percenter Daniel Straus get away with fattening his pockets and risk damaging care for my residents and hinder my ability to support my family.”

Gertrudis Rodriguez, a Certified Nursing Assistant who worked at Care One Somerset in New Jersey for 3 ½ years before the company removed her from the schedule for supporting the union, said: “How is it that Daniel Straus’ company Care One can break the law, while Daniel Straus gives money to an institute of law? I’m an immigrant and maybe I don’t understand the way things work here, but it seems to me that if a judge told me that I had to do something and I didn’t listen, I would go to jail. A judge told Care One that they needed to give us our jobs back, and ruled that they broke the law when they dismissed us. Care One hasn’t followed the judge’s order, but Daniel Straus and his companies aren’t facing any consequences. That’s unjust. We’ve struggled for a long time and we’re going to keep fighting until the very end because we deserve dignity and respect.”

This satirical performance was sponsored by NYU Law Students for Economic Justice, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, GSOC-UAW, UnitedNY, 1199SEIU and the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU.

Background: Daniel Straus, along with his brother Moshael Straus, runs the hugely profitable Care One and HealthBridge nursing home companies. Some nursing homes run by Straus’ companies have threatened to slash healthcare benefits, staffing and wages for caregivers, or have refused to recognize workers’ legally protected rights to form a union. Meanwhile, Daniel Straus endowed the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice at NYU Law School with annual gifts of $1.25 million.

Straus’ nursing home companies operate in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and other states. According to the most recent data available, Care One-run facilities in CT and MA generated a net income of over $13.6 million in 2010. Care One-run facilities in NJ generated a net income of more than $23.3 million in 2009. In addition, HealthBridge Management, a company 100% owned by Care One that manages facilities in all three states generated a net income of more than $11.4 million in 2010.

When caregivers voted to form a union in September 2010 at Somerset Valley Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in New Jersey, Care One did not accept the outcome of the election. Instead, they unlawfully terminated and disciplined workers at least 10 workers for their union support and filed objections to the union’s victory with the National Labor Relations Board.

In August 2011, the NLRB issued a decision dismissing all of Care One’s objections and certifying the union as the collective bargaining representative, but Care One still refuses to bargain with the workers. In December 2011, the NLRB in Washington, D.C. issued a unanimous decision saying that Care One unlawfully refused to bargain with the union. At each stage, Care One has not complied with the decision and has spent vast resources on fighting the NLRB and the union. For example, Care One retained the services of high-priced out-of-state lawyers to argue their objections case before the NLRB.

In Connecticut, when contracts in six HealthBridge facilities expired in early 2011, the company proposed deep cuts to wages, health insurance, and staffing levels. After months of negotiations, HealthBridge locked out 100 workers at the West River Health Care Center in Milford, Connecticut – just 2 weeks before Christmas. Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy issued a statement noting that more than 40 other nursing homes settled contracts with the union in 2011, and urging the company to work toward a fair contract. As of January 2012, workers at West River continue to be barred from their jobs and their residents.

For more information, go to CareOneWatch.org

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The New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU represents 22,000 professional and paraprofessional health care workers in Connecticut and Rhode Island in both public and private sector hospitals, clinics, non-profit agencies, skilled nursing homes and other health care settings, including 7,000 nurses, nursing assistants, dietary, laundry, housekeeping and other support staff in long-term care facilities.

With 350,000 members in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida and Washington D.C., 1199SEIU is the largest and fastest growing healthcare union in the country. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all.

UnitedNY is a grassroots community coalition that mobilizes working people and the unemployed to call for good jobs and make corporations pay their fair share. NYU Law Students for Economic Justice is a student-run organization at NYU Law School committed to consumer rights, workers’ rights and poverty alleviation.

For over a decade, graduate student workers have been fighting for their right to form a union. In 2000, 1,500 NYU graduate employees voted overwhelmingly to form their union, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, GSOC-UAW. This union became the first graduate employee union at a private university. This inspired thousands of graduate employees at other private institutions to file their own petitions to unionize.