Union members picket outside Elderwood at Lockport
May 26—Workers represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East marched in a picket line Wednesday afternoon in front of Elderwood at Lockport calling for competitive wages and an end to the staff shortage found at the nursing home.
Workers reported working for between $12-13 per-hour and without a contract since Dec. 31. Workers from temporary agencies have been getting triple that amount, but a shortage of workers at the facility has been ongoing.
April Stonebraker, who's worked at the facility since it was Oddfellows, said she's seen times when only two workers will be in the facility to help more than 30 residents.
"This is not just a facility problem, it's an industry problem," she said. "There's short staffing in every hospital and nursing home."
Darleen Gates, the administrative union organizer at Elderwood at Lockport, said that she and the workers are starting with an informational picket, which had been ongoing for more than an hour on the shoulder of the road in front of the facility Wednesday. Workers carried signs and shouted out slogans while drivers honked in support to their cheers.
Gates said that she and her fellow workers were willing to take more action, up to and including a strike.
Stonebraker said it's been tough for her and other workers to support themselves as health care professionals. The gap has closed, she said, between the wages in the health care industry and other industries. Today with inflation and gas prices, Stonebraker said a competitive wage isn't just desirable, it's a necessity.
"The employees that work here are drained," she said. "They've worked countless hours without hazard pay. To pay a temporary worker triple what they pay their own staff is a slap in the face."
Stonebroker also said that for-profit corporations should be ashamed for not putting that profit back into the facility.
According New York State Department of Health documents attained by United Healthcare Workers, Elderwood dealt in a practice called "related party transactions."
In 2020 Elderwood at Lockport spent a total of $474,517 to lease its facilities, but that payment was to a company that was "related" through common ownership. Another $678,120 was paid in 2020 to Elderwood Administrative Services, LLC, to provide financial management and operational oversight. EAS also had a common owner with Elderwood at Lockport.
Demian Fernandez, a researcher for United Healthcare Workers, found this information within the costs reports each facility makes for the state, as-per legally required, but said that these reports are often full of "unnecessary information" and are "difficult to read."
Chuck Hayes, vice president of Marketing and Communications for the nursing home, had no comment on the financial issue of related party transactions, but did supply a press release saying that, "Elderwood at Lockport is committed to providing safe, high-quality care for our residents in a vibrant and engaging environment. Our staff are key to delivering this care, and we have invested significantly in wages, benefits and programs to create a positive and rewarding employment experience."
According to the press release, Elderwood at Lockport is focusing on the bargaining table and will present the United Healthcare Workers leadership with a wage plan that it called, "the most generous wage offer Elderwood has ever extended in a collective bargaining environment."
"We will refrain from further public comment at this time," it concluded. "So that those bargaining sessions are as productive as possible."
