Workers continue union recognition at ManorCare
YEADON >> A June 2017 vote to unionize continues to fall on deaf ears as over 100 employees at ManorCare Health Services in Yeadon keep pushing management to recognize their union status.
Some of the licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants on Tuesday spoke with ManorCare management to make their case to recognize their union with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. The National Labor Relations Board has twice ruled against ManorCare’s objections to the union vote, the most recent decision being handed down earlier this month.
“My co-workers and I decided to form a union last year because we need things to be better in our nursing home,” said Herose Brunot, a CNA at ManorCare-Yeadon for 13 years. “Management has tried to stop us from having a union for a whole year. I have been told several times to join the union, but with a union I know we can make things better here.”
Benefits, pay, and better working conditions are just some of the reasons that were given for the employees to unionize at the 198-bed facility, according to an SEIU representative. Brunot said she has not seen a pay raise in at least three years, and raises she has previously seen have been cents.
Brunot added that she had previously worked someplace with a unionized workforce and that things were better in that protected workforce.
State Reps. Margo Davidson, D-164 of Upper Darby, Joanna McClinton, D-191 of Philadelphia, and Leanne KruegerBraneky, D-161 of Swarthmore, had planned to meet with management with the workers to help move forward the talks in a way to benefit everyone but they were prevented from entering the premises. The representatives have an interest in the issue to protect the workers, and because of the influx of taxpayer money that serves as profit for the privately held company, formally called HCE ManorCare, that has 46 facilities in Pennsylvania and hundreds across the country.
According to SEIU, the Yeadon center had an approximately $18 million revenue in fiscal year 2016. More than 90 percent of the state’s $53 million revenue, they claim, was sourced to Medicaid and Medicare payments.
ManorCare-Yeadon administrator Michelle Lasalle could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon.