Nursing home workers renew strike threats

“People cannot live, cannot provide for their families, cannot put food on the table, cannot pay for the mortgage on raises where you are talking about a quarter to 30 cents over five years.”

HARTFORD — After a calling off a May 1 strike, 200 unionized nursing home workers gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to give lawmakers an ultimatum: raise their wages or face a new strike of 3,100 workers.

The workers of SEIU 1199 New England will reconvene on May 8 to decide whether they will order a new strike.

A new strike would most likely include 25 nursing homes throughout Connecticut that pay their workers through the state’s Medicaid funding, said Rob Baril, president of SEIU 1199 New England. The previous strike was planned for 20 nursing homes, impacting about 3,000 patients.

Their demand is a 4percent increase in Medicaid funding in both of the next two fiscal years, or about $40 million more each year, part of which would be shouldered by the federal government, Baril said. That change would result in a 4-percent wage increase for nursing home workers, who have seen one 2-percent wage increase since 2015.

“People cannot live, cannot provide for their families, cannot put food on the table, cannot pay for the mortgage on raises where you are talking about a quarter to 30 cents over five years,” said Baril.