On Wednesday, a protest being led by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, intend to demonstrate in front of the offices of Sea Crest and Greystone, a nursing home companies who the union claims has blocked the workers efforts to negotiate for affordable health care coverage and other necessities.
The workers say that they want the Florida Legislature to require nursing home chains Sea Crest and Greystone to disclose how federal funding they've been awarded is being applied.
The union says that Sea Crest and Greystone, claim they cannot raise caregivers’ wages because of budget shortfalls. But the SEIU says that caregivers helped secure millions of dollars from the federal government in order to enable the nursing home industry to fully comply with increased staffing requirements of 2.9 hours of nursing care per 24-hour day.
State legislators increased nursing home funding last year to help the companies comply with state-mandated staffing requirements to provide 2.9 hours of daily care per resident.
CL contacted Greystone for comment. A spokesperson for the company, Teresa Evans, said late Tuesday that "Facility representatives continue to negotiate in good faith with the union to reach a suitable collective bargaining agreement for our employees.
Thankfully, we have a tremendous staff and any perceived negative activity will have no impact on the level of quality care we provide for our residents."
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.