Striking Grove at Harmony workers decry compensation, conditions
JACKSON TWP — The Grove at Harmony’s nursing home team lobbied Wednesday morning for better staffing, bedside care and compensation at its facility, part of a regionwide effort by a local union to secure a new contract with Comprehensive Healthcare.
"I’d prefer to be in that building right now,” said certified nursing assistant Kimberly Dewitt. “They are offering these new people to walk in $18 to $20 an hour, and a lot of us don’t even make that, and we’ve been here for over 20 years. So we don’t understand why they wouldn’t consider their long-term employees — a good employee — versus somebody that’s never met the people and just bring them in and pay them triple wages that we’re not making.”
Dewitt, who carried a small American flag in one hand, is a member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Pennsylvania, as asserted by a signboard draped over her shoulders and the markered words, “Agency is not the answer.” Other union members gathered along picket lines with a megaphone and shirts which read, “Together we rise.”
“We’re not asking for anything extreme,” said Jesse Maitland, also a CNA and SEIU member. “We’ve had people work out the finances and everything, and it’s something they can definitely afford.”
Maitland said he sees a fair deal with Comprehensive Healthcare, which operates the Grove at Harmony, as necessary for both residents and health care workers. In addition to the Grove at Harmony, Comprehensive Healthcare operates facilities in New Castle, Irwin and Washington. Better wages means better staffing, Maitland contended.
“We have peoples’ lives on our hands, and that should not be a poverty-wage job,” he said.
The Grove at Harmony did not respond to a request for comment.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Association, an entity representing for-profit nursing homes, recently told the Associated Press that a state-led increase in Medicaid payments to nursing homes, which amounts to $300 million annually, will not kick in until January. This also is the case with $130 million in federal coronavirus aid Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration and state lawmakers approved for nursing homes, with the intent to help them hire and retain workers.
Maitland said this money essentially can be used retroactively, so there’s really no reason for SEIU to be on strike.
“The point is they received taxpayer money, they’re mandated to use it, and they don’t want to,” said Heather Connor, another CNA and SEIU member. “They want to put it in their own pocket. And that should be an outrage to every taxpayer.”
Maitland and Dewitt described the partial ownership of administrator Sam Halper as consistent with a rapid decline in care quality for residents, alongside a lack of investment in their needs. Halper has recently faced indictment for health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and other charges linked to nursing home negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news report.
“We literally did not get any money for COVID,” Dewitt said. “When they were paid here, they took all of our personal time off, when we had to be isolated, instead of paying us to have that time off, and then said, ‘Well, if you don’t have any time, you don’t have any time.’ So if you had to isolate twice, you had no income coming in.”
She added that after fighting with administrators for a better arrangement, caregivers were able to receive limited relief for that time off.
The caregiving team loves the home’s residents, Maitland said, and taking whatever sick time was needed to ensure their safety throughout COVID-19 was the only priority.
