About 700 workers from 14 nursing homes across the state will begin unfair labor practice strikes today, including The Gardens at Easton and The Meadows at Stroud in East Stroudsburg.

Negotiations started Thursday morning and ended in the early hours of Friday morning.

“Our goal has always been - and continues to be - to get a fair contract that invests in this entire workforce and will meaningfully address the staffing crisis,” said Matthew Yarnell, President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

“But the offers on the table still fall short - Comprehensive and Priority are failing to create the kind of wage scales we’ve been able to achieve with other providers. These workers have been underpaid and disrespected for far too long, and it’s both them and the residents they care for who suffer.”

Today on picket lines across the state, workers will be joined by elected leaders, allies, and supporters who are demanding accountability for the $600M in public funds nursing homes will receive in the state budget, 70% of which is to be spent on staffing and bedside care.

No additional bargaining dates have been set but workers are hopeful to get back to the table as soon as possible.

At issue is how much of the $600 million earmarked by Gov. Tom Wolf and the legislature will actually go to workers who say they are working longer hours, taking duties outside their jobs, and even rationing food for residents.

The plan directed $250 million in one-time payments to long-term care providers with no requirements on how the money is spent. Facilities have used similar payments on COVID-19 costs like testing and PPE as well as for one-time recruitment or retention bonuses to workers.

The remaining funds represent a permanent increase in state funding to pay for low-income residents’ stay in care facilities, with a new requirement that 70% of all costs go to “resident-related care” - though exactly what that encompasses is unclear.

The SEIU is demanding that the increased funding be spent on higher wages and better benefits for nursing home workers to stem turnover. The union is also asking for language that protects workers’ next contract in case a home is sold, transparency in how the homes use outside contractors, and a guarantee that companies won’t fight future union drives.

The union reached an agreement with one employer, Guardian Healthcare, earlier this week, though the final contract had yet to be ratified by workers as of Aug. 31. Negotiations are still ongoing with two more nursing home companies, Comprehensive and Priority.

Funding

The new $600 million isn’t coming all at once. First, sometime this fall, long-term care providers such as nursing homes will receive $250 million in federal stimulus money.

Then, starting in January 2023, providers will see an approximately $35-per-day increase in the state reimbursement rate for taking care of low-income residents - a 17.5% bump. Facilities will be required to show that 70% of their total costs are resident-related, rather than for overhead or administration.

But exactly what resident-related costs are is not defined in the legislation, said Diane Menio, executive director of CARIE, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that advocates for the well-being and autonomy of older adults.

“I don’t know what goes into that 70%,” Menio said.

She also noted that the Wolf administration backed off a proposed regulation that would have required nursing homes to provide residents with 4.1 hours of direct care each day - the federal recommendation - instead agreeing to boost the current requirement from 2.7 hours to 2.87, along with new minimum ratios of nurses and nursing aides to residents.

Zach Shamberg, chief executive of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, said that the funding boost should help counteract years of low state spending on elder care and bring security to the industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic. His trade group for long-term care facilities counts Priority as a member.

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