Sunnyview employees picket at nursing home
Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center employees stood in the grass Wednesday afternoon across the road from the facility, holding signs protesting their employer's negotiation tactics.
Vehicles passing by 107 Sunnyview Circle greeted the messages with honked horns trumpeting as if they were respected royalty. Lately, however, these employees have been feeling anything but respected.
“We want to make sure our patients are getting the care they deserve, and the workers the respect they deserve,” said Margaret “Granny” Burke, a laundry aide for Sunnyview.
The employees were supported by their union, the Service Employees International Union. A committee of employees has been negotiating with Sunnyview management since January for new contracts. About 100 Sunnyview workers belong to the union.
Sunnyview's administration offered a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“We're in the middle of negotiating a new contract, and we anticipate nothing but a mutual resolution when we complete our bargaining,” said Sunnyview administrator Tricia Kradel.
According to committee member Cheryl Downing, those negotiations have been slow from the start. She said these issues have been building for years and have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
She said it makes it hard to continue caring for the residents in a family-style manner.
“We're here for our family,” Downing said, choking up at the word “family.”
“It makes us sad that we can't provide the care they need, let alone the care they deserve,” she said.
One of the focal points of the protest and the negotiations is conflicts with scheduling.Burke said when people are first hired, they are told about plug-in weekends as if they'll be working an occasional weekend shift, but instead they will often be scheduled to work two or three weekends in a row.She said this alone frustrates some of her coworkers to the point that they want to leave, and some new employees don't last very long after their arrival.“We want to see that go away,” Burke said. “We want to have good quality workers here and retain them.”According to Downing, the scheduling for the local, regular employees starkly contrasts those offered to “agency” workers, which is how the protesters referred to temporary employees.Downing said the agency workers know their schedule weeks in advance, but regular employees won't find out their schedule until the Friday before the new week begins.She said through better, more consistent scheduling practices, the facility could reduce its reliance on agency workers.“It would save money for the facility, and it would reduce call-offs,” Downing said.Sun Straight, a union representative serving as spokeswoman for the committee, said call-offs create further strain on staff that is already stretched thin.
Protesters said thinly stretched staff can no longer offer the in-depth level of care it once did when the county government owned it.Butler County sold the facility, which opened in 1900, to Premier Healthcare Management in 2014.Chelsea Rimer, a certified nursing assistant, said there are only about two to three aides per 40 residents, which offers very little time for pleasantries with the residents. She said in this dynamic, the aides have to be constantly moving from one resident to the next just to meet the basic demands of care.“Things have just gone downhill,” Rimer said. “Nothing changes, so it's time to make a change.”Rimer stood next to her colleague and fellow aide Amy Welton, who has been a Sunnyview employee for the past 30 years.The facility was once owned by the county government, and she remembers a slower daily routine that allowed for the personal relationships with residents that truly made the level of care great.“You'd have time to curl their hair and do their makeup,” Welton said. “You could actually sit with them and get to know them.”In her statement, Kradel did not specifically address these concerns individually, but offered an overall perspective on scheduling and their employees.“We value our employees, and we take great care to ensure that our scheduling respects the needs of our staff and residents,” she said.
While the administration acknowledges the respect it has for its employees, the many picket signs reveal employees feel otherwise.“Front-line workers deserve respect,” said one sign tied loosely on the side of a protester's dog.Others held signs that said: “Don't Just Call Us Heroes Treat Us Like Heroes” and “Respect us. Protect us. Pay us.”Straight said the values of ownership appear more directed toward finances than the level of care, based on her interpretation of one of the company's offers during negotiations.“One of the proposals was to move everyone in housekeeping to nursing, and they would outsource those departments,” Straight said. “They're not interested in keeping local people employed.”Downing said pressure on the staff has continued to build because of the pandemic, and the tough negotiations have not made any of those emotions easier.Downing wore her arm in a sling, having recently had a work-related injury.“We are exhausted, both physically and mentally,” she said. “But these residents are our family.”She said that family feels strongly about this topic too, and some of them know what is happening, even if they couldn't be there by their side.“There are some who, if they could, would be out here with us,” Downing said.<iframe width="100%" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uXouHTRfE5Y" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
