(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – Thirty-four Workers - Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nurse Assistants, Housekeeping Aides, Laundry Aides, Dietary Cooks and Dietary Aides, who are employed at the 142-bed Comprehensive of Williamsville Nursing Home in Suburban Buffalo have unanimously voted to authorize a one-day Strike, 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers East has announced. 

The Strike is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, May 17th - in three, four-hour shifts held throughout the course of that day.

The Union-represented Caregivers have been working without a contract since December 31st, 2022 when their three-year contract expired. 

Caregivers held an informational picket in March when contract negotiations began to stall with the out-of-town ownership group. 

The Nursing home Workers who voted on the Strike say they are willing to do what it takes to win a fair contract. 

“I came in on my day off because I am ready to walk,” Housekeeper Raymond Scott said.

Caregivers are asking their employer to provide better working conditions and to offer competitive wages and a pension to help retain and recruit more Workers, the Union said.

Chronic short staffing and the employer’s offer of minimum wage rates are key issues in contract talks, 1199 SEIU Officials said. 

Approximately 45% of the Workers at the facility are earning less than $15 per hour. 

Comprehensive at Williamsville is a one-star facility that in recent years has seen high Staff turnover rates - notably higher than the national average, according to U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“Short staffing effects the quality of care,” Licensed Practical Nurse Ivan Tidwell said. “We don’t have enough Staff to cover the shifts and the residents might suffer because their care is delayed.  We need more In-House Workers to help to take care of our residents and to do that we need a fair contract.”

Recruiting and retaining long-term Employees is key to continuity of care for residents, the Union-represented Workers said.

“I’ve been here twenty-seven years and we need to make a change,” Dietary Aide Sally Beiter said. “I have to think about retirement and can’t do that without a pension and better wages.”

1199 SEIU Representatives attended the Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council’s monthly meeting on Tuesday (May 16th) in order to make other Unions and their Leadership aware of the contract bargaining problems at Comprehensive of Williamsville and to ask for their support and participation in next week’s Strike.

In addition, 1199 SEIU Representatives handed out a two-sided flier that contained a list of Union proposals that Comprehensive of Williamsville’s negotiators have either rejected and/or refused to provide a counter-offer to (see below).

The Nursing Home Workers are also seeking community support and have launched a public campaign to draw attention to their working conditions and lack of a fair contract.

The Caregivers are asking the community, resident families and Elected Officials to contact the employer and ask them to negotiate a fair contract with better working conditions and competitive wages.

Comprehensive Nursing & Rehabilitation at Williamsville owners have ties to Villages of Orleans and are named in a New York State Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Villages at Orleans. 

The Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Villages of Orleans’ owners charge years of financial fraud, which resulted in resident neglect and harm.

Part of the lawsuit alleges the owners misused more than $18 million in Medicaid funding to increase personal profits through related party transactions.

The lawsuit also alleges the owners took advantage of the State’s Medicaid funding to increase their personal profits - instead of using funds to properly staff the facility and to invest in resident care.

1199 SEIU 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 New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida, as well as in Washington, D.C.