Local Nursing Home Staff Join “Day of Action”

A group of local certified nursing aides expressed their concern about resident care when they stood outside of Golden Living Center-York Terrace in Pottsville in Thursday in support of the statewide nursing “Day of Action.”

An article on the RepublicanHerald.com reports that thousands of nursing home workers who are members of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania took part in “the largest statewide nursing ‘Day of Action’ in the union’s history,” according to Amelia Abromaitis, director of communications at SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Their mission: to bring attention to improvements needed in resident care and the challenges they face on the job.

With their contract set to expire in the near future, Golden Living Center and the union have been negotiating a contract for certified nursing assistants (CNAs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), dietary workers, laundry workers, and other union workers. For the union and its members, the goal of the negotiations will be fair and competitive wages and overtime provisions while still preserving quality patient care.

In the article, the workers expressed their concerns with patient care with comments such as “Weekends are terrible. We can use more staff.” Another worker said, “Our residents aren’t receiving the care they deserve or that they need and we’re working short staffed.”

We applaud the efforts of the Golden Living workers in Pottsville as well as the thousands of other SEIU union members across the state who took the time out of their day yesterday to stand up for quality care in nursing homes here in Pennsylvania.