Nursing home caregivers, members of 1199 SEIU, pastors, retirees and community leaders turned out in force Thursday, ratcheting up the pressure on Consulate Health Care to do the right thing – pay a living wage to their workers, offer affordable health insurance and provide quality care to nursing home residents.
For more than two hours, the fired-up protestors rallied at Consulate Headquarters in Maitland, where a few of the group’s leaders attempted to hand-deliver a strike notice, but were ordered off the property.
Wage negotiations, ongoing for several months between 1199 SEIU and Consulate, have brought the two sides no closer to reaching a deal. Consulate, which has seen its profits soar by 770 percent between 2009 and 2010, in no small measure owing to the poverty-level wages it pays to workers, has refused to grant the 3 1/2 percent pay increase requested and instead has offered a mere 1 1/2 percent.
“We are not only fighting for fairness and equity for ourselves,” said Tamara Burns, a Certified Nursing Assistant who works for Bay Breeze in Venice. “But we are also fighting to ensure that residents in the nursing homes get quality care.”
“To add to this, the wages we receive leave us juggling between whether we should buy milk, or gas, or pay the light bill – we live from pay check to pay check,” she added.
Consulate has cut back on staffing making it almost impossible for nursing assistants to properly care for the residents. CNA after CNA this reporter spoke with, lamented the difficult circumstances under which care is being provided to nursing home residents owing to cuts in work hours and staffing, flying in the face of Consulate CEO Joseph D. Conte’s boast on the company’s website that, there’s a “[strong] commitment to meeting the needs of those we serve.”
“Today is not the beginning of our fight and our fight is not our own individual fight,” said Ericka Gomez-Tejeda, 1199 SEIU Vice President of Long Term Care. “We are fighting for every single worker in America who goes to work every single day that should not have to worry if they are going to pay their household bills and have enough money to go to the doctor.”
Gomez-Tejeda, Norman Wilson, Senior Pastor of Freedom Hall Church of the Living God, and a couple of other leaders, while trying to leave a strike notice were ordered off Consulate’s property by a man who refused to give his name. The group asked if they could meet with Conte, but were again asked to leave the property, although the strike notice was delivered. When news broke of the shabby treatment, protestors became even more fired up and vowed to do whatever it takes to win the respect and dignity they feel they deserve.
“If we have to strike, are you going to do it?” the group was asked. A roaring “yes” went up. “Are you sure?,” and again protestors responded with an emphatic, “yes.”
“For the nursing home residents?”
“Yes.”
“For our families?”
“Yes.”
“For our children?”
“Yes.”
Pastor Wilson said, it was very important for him to be at Thursday’s protest and to stand with the workers who are fighting for justice.
“Fairness and justice should be for everyone,” he said. “These caregivers, they are the ones going the extra mile, caring for the sick and elderly and they are not being fairly rewarded; I am here to take a stand.”
Jose Suarez, 1199 SEIU Communications Director said, the union has done just about everything to get Consulate to budge, but have met with little or no success.
“These caregivers have dedicated their lives to care for the residents and they can’t even afford the health insurance that the company offers,” he said. “Most haven’t seen a pay increase in two years or more and even under these circumstances, caregivers are lobbying for residents to get better care.”
Perhaps Pastor Justin Felton of the Sanctuary of Levites Church, summed up today’s protest best in his opening prayer when he paid tribute to the hardworking and dedicated caregivers, who work for poverty-level wages and called for quality care for residents.
“There has been unfairness given to these workers, unfairness delivered to nursing home patients and we are praying now, Father, for your favor, for you to show up on our behalf, show up for our fight, give us strength to overcome.”
“Lord we are here today fighting on behalf of not just us, but for mankind and for humanity….Lord help them [Consulate] to see what’s right for the workers, help them [Consulate] to see what is needed for the residents,” Felton added, to cheers of ‘yes’, ‘yes.’
