Nursing home workers rally over staffing crisis, low wages, seek standards board

Caregivers from eight Southern California nursing homes who say they’re underpaid and understaffed rallied Tuesday in Los Angeles, along with community leaders and Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, to bring attention to their concerns.

The workers, represented by SEIU 2015, gathered at the Fountain View Subacute and Nursing Center in L.A. They’re calling for the formation of a California quality standards board that would establish industry-wide standards for the state’s nursing homes and their essential workers.

Tuesday’s rally was part of the union’s statewide day of action — their fourth in as many months — to draw attention to the industry’s “Great Resignation” crisis and low staffing levels. SEIU 2015 represents more than 400,000 nursing home workers and home care providers.

The Southland facilities, managed and operated through a partnership between Genesis HealthCare and NewGen, currently pay a base wage of $18 an hour, union representatives said, and the workers want that boosted to $20. They’re also seeking higher staffing requirements, stronger healthcare benefits and enforced training requirements.

Union members and legislators are fighting for inclusion of the proposal in the upcoming state budget.

Representatives with Genesis HealthCare and NewGen — which also operate the Brier Oak on Sunset and Sharon Care Center nursing homes in L.A., among others — could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Santiago said a quality standards board would ensure that nursing home caregivers are “protected, respected and adequately paid.”

“Nursing home workers have been on the front lines providing vital care to our community’s most vulnerable residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Santiago said in a statement. “At the same time, they’ve been paid low wages and forced to endure poor working conditions, which has led to skyrocketing turnover rates in nursing home facilities across the state.”

Judith Acquino, who has been a certified nursing assistant at Fountain View for 15 years, said she’s supposed to care for 12 patients a day but often deals with as many as 18.

“It directly affects the care we provide,” the 47-year-old Los Angeles resident said. “Sometimes they need immediate help and we don’t have sufficient time to get to everyone.”

Acquino said she and her coworkers are often overwhelmed as a result.

“We have high stress levels,” she said. “We’re tired and burned out. Management and the department heads want us to get everything done, regardless of the number of patients we have.”

Their current labor contract expired Dec. 21, 2021.

“The employers are refusing to bargain,” said Karen Rodriguez, an SEIU 2015 representative. “They are offering a one-time bonus of $1,000 instead of a raise, and they also want to decrease their contribution to healthcare benefits. It’s currently 75% and they want to reduce that to 50%.”

Rodriguez said workers often have to handle more than twice the number of patients they should be caring for.

“On the 3 to 11 p.m. shift they should be taking care of around 11 patients, but it’s been around 21,” she said.

Nursing home workers were hit hard by COVID-19, suffering high infection rates that brought national attention to the troubled industry. More than 238,000 nursing home workers left the industry nationwide since the start of the pandemic, SEIU 2015 said, and California lost 11% of its nursing home workforce — all in the face of increased demand.

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