Freeport healthcare workers picket for better contracts

Healthcare workers at two Freeport facilities picketed for stronger contracts on Monday. The picketers are members of 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East, which has 450,000 members throughout Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, DC. It is the nation’s largest healthcare union.

Holding signs outside South Shore Rehabilitation and Nursing Center at 275 Merrick Road were Arlene Veira, a Certified Nursing Assistant who is employed full-time at the facility, and Alexandra Ryan from the union’s political office.

“We’re in negotiations for a contract,” said Ryan, “and we’re trying to get a couple of different things, most important of which is we would like our members to be paid better because most of our members who work in nursing homes are working two jobs just to make ends meet. And they [employers] don’t want to give them a full benefit package either.”

Veira does not work another job besides the one at South Shore, but feels that her before-taxes wage of $19.97 per hour is no longer fair.

“The cost of living is so high on Long Island,” Veira said. “I went to the grocery a couple of days ago and I got three bags -- I used to get, like, 7 bags -- $135.00.”

Confirming Veira’s statement was a National Public Radio article on Nov. 10, which said that consumer prices were 6.2% higher in October 2021 than October 2020, the steepest rise since November of 1990. Pandemic-induced supply chain problems have been putting pressure on employees and employers alike, but the members of 1199SEIU feel that employers need to focus on their full-time workers.

“A lot of the nursing homes are using what we like to call agency, non-union, travel nursing assistants,” said Ryan. “[Employers] can pay them a higher wage than their full-time employees, but they’re not having to pay them any benefits, any personal time, any sick time, and we’d rather them spend that money on their full-time employees.”

A block and a half west, at Meadowbrook Care Center (320 W. Merrick Rd.), a sizeable group of picketers piped on whistles and beat rhythms outside the facility’s Washington Street entrance. Signs read, “Stop Stalling!” “Contract Now!” “Be Fair to Those Who Care.” The picketers chanted, “What do want?” “Contract!” “When do we want it?” “Now!”

“We have nursing, we have dietary, also housekeeping,” said union organizer Bettina McLean. “That’s the crowd that we have out here right now. It [the picketing] is across all the boroughs at nursing homes.”

A picketer stepped to the window of a car whose driver had stopped to ask what was going on. Other cars going by honked in affirmation of the picketers’ cause. Shortly after, the picketers streamed in a long line all the way around the large block on which Meadowbrook Care Center sits, calling out their cause to all who would listen.