(GRAND ISLAND, NEW YORK) – 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-represented Health Care Workers picketed the Elderwood Skilled Nursing Facility on Grand Island Friday (April 28th) afternoon following management’s refusal to bargain a first contract.

After being purchased by Acute Care Partners, a for-profit nursing home chain, Workers at Elderwood on Grand Island decided to Unionize.  In October 2016, over 100 Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) and Service Employees at the Grand Island Boulevard Nursing Home voted to become part of 1199 SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East, and began their quest to secure their first Union Contract.

However, 1199 SEIU Officials said, Elderwood management has “refused to respect” their Workers’ Unionization vote and has not come to the bargaining table.

Instead, they said, the company has opted for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees rather than investing those resources in its Workers and residents.

“The National Labor Relations Board certified the results of the Union election months ago,” 1199 SEIU Vice-President Todd Hobler said in a prepared statement distributed prior to the picket. “Instead of ‘doing the right thing ‘and sitting down with their Employees to negotiate a fair contract, this Employer ‘wastes time with frivolous court appeals and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that could have gone to improve conditions for residents and Workers at the facility.’”

Just this week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dismissed Elderwood’s latest appeal and moved to issue a complaint for the company’s refusal to bargain with 1199 SEIU.

“We feel like ‘we are not being respected’ by Elderwood,” Elderwood LPH Cindy Dick said. “We ‘work hard’ providing care and services to our residents.  ‘We just want a fair contract like other 1199 Nursing Home Workers in the area.’  We are picketing to ‘stand up for our rights.’”

The picketing 1199 SEIU Nursing Home Workers received support from a number of other Western New York Unions and Labor Organizations on the picket line, including Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation President Richard Lipsitz (pictured below), as well as a number of area Unions and their representatives, including the United Steelworkers (USW).

1199 SEIU represents more than 5,000 Nursing Home Workers in Western New York.  Many are at the bargaining table now, with contracts covering 25 Nursing Homes and 3,500 Workers that expire at the end of April, including another Elderwood facility in the Buffalo Suburb of Williamsville.

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East - whose mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all - is the largest and fastest-growing Health Care Union in America, representing more than 400,000 Nurses and Caregivers throughout the States of Florida, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and in Washington, D.C.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor's Note: The photos that appear with this Labor News Report on the 1199 SEIU picket on Grand Island are courtesy of the United Steelworker Member Nick Reed via the Social Network Facebook.