Nursing home workers rally for better wages, safer working conditions

By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief

St. Louis – Workers rallied last week at informational pickets outside three area nursing homes operated by Luxor Healthcare to demand owners bargain in good faith for living wages and safe working conditions.

The workers, represented by SEIU Healthcare, rallied July 9 to demand a path to $25 an hour, safer working conditions and Juneteenth as a paid holiday, among other changes. New Jersey-based Luxor’s has proposed freezing starting rates for the next three years, offered minimal annual raises – amounting to only pennies – and told workers they could only get Juneteenth as a holiday if they gave up another holiday to get it.

“Fundamentally, they are just not coming to the table with acceptable proposals,” said SEIU Healthcare Missouri Vice President Lenny Jones. “In fact, the last two sessions they have come to the table with nothing. Workers are frustrated with the lack of acceptable proposals and bargaining.”

UNACCEPTABLE PROPOSAL
Jones said Luxor has proposed a starting rate of $12.55 an hour – 25 cents above Missouri’s minimum wage – for laundry and dietary aides and $16 an hour for certified nursing assistants, and holding the salaries there for the next three years unless the minimum wage goes above $12.55.

“They can’t live,” Jones said. “They can’t even hire people at that amount. It’s so below what other nursing homes pay. Eighty percent of their workforce is under two years of seniority. They have just decimated the workforces at places, where workers don’t care to stick around, and that has a negative consequence on the residents when that happens.”

SHORT-STAFFED AND UNDERPAID
Workers rallied at Beauvais Rehab and Healthcare Center in the Shaw neighborhood, Hillside Rehab and Healthcare Center in the Baden neighborhood and Rancho Rehab and Healthcare Center in Florissant. About 280 people work at the three homes.

They were joined by other unions and community groups including UNITE HERE Local 74 and Missouri Jobs with Justice as well as faith and community groups and local elected officials including St. Louis Ward 6 Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez, Missouri State Senator Angela Mosley (D-St. Louis County) and U.S. Senate candidate Lucas Kunce.

Speakers highlighted the mounting issues at the facilities since Luxor, an out-of-state and for-profit owner, took over the homes. Workers shared their experiences of being short-staffed and underpaid – and how that has forced many caregivers to work long hours and/or take second jobs to make ends meet.

They also complained of lack of proper equipment, putting patients and workers at risk of injury.

“We continue to care for our residents because we love them, and they need us,” said Samuelle Allen, a certified medical tech at Beauvais Healthcare and Rehab Center. “But we have been sacrificing so much – and going without living wages so we can pay our bills without having to work two or three jobs. Low wages and short staffing impact our safety on the job. It’s really stressful trying to provide good care to all my residents when there’s just not enough people to do the work.”

CANCELED BARGAINING SESSION
Jones said Luxor refused to recognize the existing bargaining agreement when it bought the homes in 2021, stopped dues deduction and proposed taking away the union security clause.

Workers fought back for two years and set a strike date before reaching a one-year contract agreement with Luxor last year. That agreement expired in May.

Luxor abruptly canceled a bargaining session scheduled for July 10 after workers demonstrated. He said no new bargaining sessions have been scheduled.