DETROIT (WXYZ) — “We deal with our group and it is time for the nursing house homeowners to deal with us,” mentioned nursing house employee Cheryl Mitchell throughout a latest rally. Mitchell is a member of the Service Workers Worldwide Union (SEIU).
“We wish increased wages and higher advantages,” mentioned Charles Harden, additionally a SEIU member, who works at Hartford Nursing and Rehabilitation in Detroit which is owned by Ciena Healthcare.
SEIU leaders are presently getting enter from their members at over a dozen nursing house services on whether or not they’re able to take their points to the picket line.
“I sat in on a few the negotiations and you’ll’t even actually name them negotiations,” mentioned Colleen Mahony, a licensed sensible nurse in long run care. “The corporate’s reply to every part is, nope, not within the price range. Not within the price range. Not within the price range.”
“If there’s not individuals on the bedside, if there’s not individuals making the meals, if there’s not individuals doing the laundry, maintaining the power, doing the actions, then they do not have a enterprise and we do not really feel like we’re being compensated pretty for the work that we’re doing,” Mahony added.
The first points contain wages and advantages.
In an announcement to 7 Motion Information, Amy La Fleur, Ciena Healthcare’s Senior Vice President of Operations, mentioned they’re monitoring the potential for a strike by members of SEIU Healthcare Michigan at a few of their nursing services in Michigan and that they’re “presently working underneath energetic or prolonged collective bargaining agreements with the union.”
La Fleur went on to say that nursing house suppliers are going through “unprecedented challenges” with regards to hiring and retaining employees for “the crucial jobs of caring for our sufferers.”
“Ciena stands able to work with all events to seek out options to the problems going through our trade,” she mentioned.
The Well being Care Affiliation of Michigan (HCAM) represents Ciena and different nursing house suppliers throughout Michigan.
“A strike may very well be catastrophic to care,” mentioned HCAM President & CEO Melissa Samuel.
“Hopefully, all people will simply take a deep breath on this, understand the implications if it (a strike) have been to go ahead, and sit down and work collectively,” Samuel mentioned.
Samuel mentioned what might assistance is cash from a supplemental invoice that Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed in early 2022. It is $67 million to recruit, retain, and practice nursing facility workers.
“Nonetheless, it’s been virtually a full 12 months, and people funds have nonetheless not been launched,” Samuel mentioned. “Understandably, suppliers are annoyed as they proceed to attend for the long-promised reduction. We implore the state to right away launch the funds.”
