Nursing home workers at 11 sites plan 1-day strike

Workers at 11 Chicago-area nursing homes owned by Infinity Healthcare Management will go on strike on Labor Day.

The strike is currently planned to last one day. Infinity nursing homes in Niles, Oak Lawn, Cicero, Bloomingdale, Itasca, Momence and Streator, as well as four within Chicago city limits, will be affected.

The striking facilities collectively have the capacity for 2,380 patients, according to their websites and U.S. Health News.

Infinity nursing home employees entered negotiations for a new contract on May 23. The workers, who are represented by SEIU Healthcare, are seeking a new wage scale with higher planned raises, as well as higher staffing levels and new paid holidays including Juneteenth.

Contracts at Infinity Nursing Homes were last renegotiated in 2020. Workers went without a contract from May to December of that year, embarking on a 12-day strike in December.

At the end of the 2020 strike, workers and management settled an agreement for a new contract including raises of at least $1 per hour for all workers, $2.50 hourly pandemic pay, five sick days a year and personal protective equipment.

This time, workers have dubbed Monday’s action “Strike for Our Lives,” alleging unfair labor practices at nursing homes operated by Infinity.

Employees on the bargaining committee allege that bargaining has taken place in bad faith, according to the union, and that they have been threatened with retaliation while on the job.

The union also said that some employees have been barred from attending bargaining sessions.

“(Workers) tried to reason with the managers and owners of Infinity to say no, we’re not getting paid right, no we’re not getting respected on the job, and we’re short-staffed,” Jaquie Algee, director of external relations at SEIU Healthcare, said at a Thursday news conference.

Short staffing has also been an issue at all 11 Infinity nursing homes planning to strike, the union said last week.

Ambassador Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, located in Albany Park, will be among the striking facilities. As workers prepare for Monday, supporters gathered outside early Thursday afternoon.

Ambassador declined to comment on the upcoming strike. Infinity Healthcare Management was not immediately available for further comment.

Many preparing to strike at Ambassador and other Infinity facilities were front line workers during the early COVID-19 pandemic. April Hudson, a certified nursing assistant who has worked at Ambassador for four years, remembers going to work during polar vortex blizzards, walking through unshoveled streets to check on patients.

During winter spikes in infection rates, staff members often got sick while working with residents, Hudson said.

“I treat them like they’re my aunties, my uncles, my grandma, my grandpa,” Hudson said.

Ambassador’s website advertises 140 staff members to the facility’s 190 beds.

However, Hudson said that on the overnight shift, patients outnumber CNAs at Ambassador at a ratio of 15 to 1.

The facility saw a 93% turnover rate this year, state Sen. Natalie Toro, D-Chicago, said at the news conference.

Hudson told the Chicago Tribune that high turnover has created a more contentious work culture since the last contract negotiation period.