SEIU California
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike Roth, 916.444.7170
Maria Elena Jauregui, Spanish-language, 818.355.5291
Sacramento, CA – Members of the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) California warmly embraced the nursing home industry reforms President Biden released Monday and referred to in his State of the Union address last night. April Verrett, President of SEIU Local 2015 and an Executive Board member of SEIU California said the following:
“Courageous and compassionate caregivers went to work every day through the pandemic, risking their lives to care for fragile community members in the virus’ crosshairs because of nursing home corporations’ greed.
“Today, the President of the United States lifted our cause – and our sisters and brothers – up on a national stage, putting forward meaningful proposals to transform long-term care work into a valued, respected career. President Biden knows where long-term care workers – the majority women of color – belong: at the heart of a long-overdue transformation of the nursing home industry, with real accountability on corporate owners and transparency for billions in public dollars. Today’s watershed moment didn’t happen by accident, but through the energy and organizing of frontline workers across the nation who elected a president committed to unions for all.
“President Biden’s plan embraces key planks of our reform agenda – staff to resident ratios that provide for quality, compassionate care; training, career ladders, and opportunities to stand together in unions so workers can provide better care while making a career from the work we love. Importantly, the Presidents’ plan would hold chain operators accountable for quality of care. Biden has empowered states to lead this transformation, and California is poised to do just that through SEIU members’ “Put Care First” agenda.
“SEIU members are thrilled to partner with President Biden to create a long-term care system that values every senior and person with disability in our care, and creates opportunities for caregivers to build strength through our unions.”
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