Fresno, CA – Members of SEIU Local 2015, the nation’s largest long-term care union and California’s largest labor union representing more than 470,000 nursing home workers and home care providers, held a public press event to speak against management at Fresno Post-Acute Care Center on reforms to their contract to push back against high staff turnover rates leading to dangerous staffing levels.
The facility is experiencing alarming turnover rates among underpaid and underprotected nursing home workers. These workers need better wages and benefits necessary to attract and retain nursing home workers to help improve working conditions and ensure nursing home quality care to residents. Hundreds of thousands nursing home workers have left the industry nationwide since the start of the pandemic. Low wages and poor working conditions have led to alarming turnover rates in Fresno Post-Acute, resulting in severe ongoing staffing shortages.
These nursing home workers are primarily of women of color (as are long-term care providers across the nation). Workers are calling for improved care and working conditions. They’re calling for wages and benefits that match the value of their essential work and attract enough talent to fill empty jobs. As the nursing home industry is currently in crisis, SEIU 2015 members are fighting for better staffing standards, including benefits and wages to attract the workers these facilities desperately need.
At Fresno PostAcute Care Center, workers are taking action to demand:
- Wages and benefits that will attract and retain workers
- Respect for seniority
- Contributions to health and education
A 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General underscores that nursing homes across the country are stricken with monumental staffing problems, high levels of burnout, frequent employee turnover, and a lack of resources needed to train new employees. A recent SEIU 2015 poll found that, when asked about their concerns on the job, staffing levels and wages were the top concerns (both at 86%), followed by financial security and retirement benefits (81%), and healthcare benefits (77%).
Workers have been in negotiations with this operator since April of 2023, anxious to address ongoing unsafe working conditions that affect both residents and staff resulting in high turnover rates and pay irregularities to nursing home workers like Tyiska Jones, a Fresno Post-Acute Care Center CNA, who says: “We are fighting for respect, livable wages, back pay, the sign-on bonus that we never got, and everything else we need as workers. My work is overwhelming. Sometimes, we’re so understaffed that we have a ratio of about 30 patients for every one employee. That’s the usual for so many of us. If somebody calls off, the ratio goes up even more. It creates stress on both sides, because residents feel frustrated by not having enough people around. It’s exhausting. We are standing strong on this and we’re all looking forward to finally crossing that contract finish line.”
Arnulfo De La Cruz, SEIU 2015 President, knows the importance of care investments for nursing home workers, and has mentioned that: “The demand for care jobs in the U.S., including nursing homes, continues to grow at an exponential rate…the urgent need to invest in these facilities and attract the urgently needed workers…a majority of nursing home workers are Black women, Indigenous women, women of color, and immigrants, and too many of these essential workers struggle with low wages and inadequate benefits.”
To learn more about SEIU Local 2015 visit www.SEIU2015.org or on social media @SEIU2015.