If Governor Lamont cannot come up with a last-minute deal with the Service Employees International Union to prevent the strike by 3,400 nursing home workers Friday, he plans to resort to military forces to defeat the strike.
By Jenna Carlesso and Keith M. Phaneuf, CT Mirror
The head of the state’s largest health care workers’ union said Wednesday that the labor group and the state have not yet reached a deal to avert a nursing home employee strike planned for Friday.
But SEIU District 1199 New England did postpone plans to strike at seven of the 33 facilities targeted to face a work stoppage Friday because those care centers hadn’t made sufficient preparations for temporary staff.
“We are not there yet, although we remain in dialogue with all parties and hope that we can achieve the funding standards that are necessary to move people up,” said Rob Baril, the union president. “This workforce is, frankly, too often ignored.”
Nursing home union: No deal with state yet rep-am.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rep-am.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Connecticut Offering $280M to Nursing Homes to Avoid Strikes
Connecticut officials on Monday proposed an additional $280 million in funding for nursing homes in an effort to avoid strikes by nearly 4,000 health workers that are set to begin Friday if negotiations fail.
Democratic Governor Ned Lamont’s budget director, Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw, sent letters to labor union and industry officials outlining the proposed funding, which includes $149.5 million for 4.5% wage increases for nurses, aides and other nursing home workers in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years.
“We’ve got an aggressive proposal on the table because there’s nothing more important than taking care of our seniors, and I hope to God the nurses are there to do it,” Lamont said Monday.