(WELLSVILLE, NEW YORK) - 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers East - which represents more than 50 Workers at the Highland Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Wellsville, has filed 11 Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Charges against the for-profit ownership group, including wrongful termination, discrimination, unsafe work environment, retaliation and refusal to bargain.

Following more than two years of negotiations to win a first Union contract, Highland Park Workers held a two day-Strike in September, but are still working without a contract.

1199 SEIU Vice President Tracey Harrison said: “The owners ‘have refused to provide’ Workers ‘with any wage increase’ in the first year of the contract ‘and have demanded concessions on current health insurance and pension which is especially heartless during the middle of a deadly (Coronavirus) pandemic.’  Highland Park management ‘has engaged in a series of unlawful actions that have prompted the filing of the charges.’”

1199 SEIU represents Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), and Laundry, Housekeeping and Maintenance Workers employed at the Highland Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

“I’ve been a CNA for twenty-three years and this employer’s behavior ‘has been horrible!,’” said Maggie Phillips, a mother and grandmother who has since left her position for a better work environment and job security.  “I think they’re ‘trying to intimidate us so we can’t do any better for ourselves.’  ‘We only want to be left alone to care for our residents and be paid a fair wage with some benefits to provide for our families, like anyone else.’”

Highland Park is owned by Excelsior Group, LLC, a New York based for-profit corporation with no ties to Wellsville or the people living in the community.

Excelsior Group, LLC owns 11 other for-profit facilities in Ithaca, New Jersey and the Greater New York City area.

Highland Park Staff, however, are from the Wellsville Community and are demanding better wages, training and job security - much like the benefits secured by thousands of other Nursing Home Workers employed across Western New York, 1199 SEIU Officials said.  

“They ‘change the rules all the time,’” LPN Ellen Drew says.  “A Union contract ‘will allow us to agree on what’s expected on the job.’  ‘The line is not clearly drawn for staff and expectations just need to be in writing, so the rules don’t keep changing.’  A contract ‘will give Staff guidelines to follow and we can just worry about providing the best care for our residents, especially during COVID.’  ‘We are here working through the holidays caring for residents with COVID and it’s tough.’  ‘We just want one less thing to worry about.’”

1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East represents more than 400,000 Nurses and Caregivers throughout the States of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida and in Washington, D.C.