Connecticut Nursing Home Workers Stage One-Day Walkout

"[D]emanding" higher staffing levels and wages, roughly 4,500 members of the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, employees at 40 Connecticut nursing homes, conducted a one-day walkout on March 20, the New York Times reports. The state government hired and provided transport for 2,000 temporary nurses and nurse assistants from Denver-based U.S. Nursing Corp. to provide care for about 6,000 nursing home residents (Zielbauer, New York Times, 3/21). Inspectors sent by state health officials to nursing homes during the strike did not report any problems, although striking workers "said they'd heard some accounts of residents waiting longer than usual" to receive care (Julien/Budoff, Hartford Courant, 3/21). The employees -- nurses, assistants and food and maintenance workers -- have asked for a 6% wage increase over two years. They also have called current staffing levels "inadequate," pointing out that some homes have up to a 20 to one patient to nurse ratio. The nursing home industry maintains that low Medicaid reimbursement rates limit its income, "leaving little money to hire more staff or to raise salaries." Jerry Brown, president of District 1199, has called on state lawmakers to change the state's 21-year-old Medicaid reimbursement law, which restricts maximum payments nursing homes receive per resident (New York Times, 3/21). The employees said that they may stage a two-day walkout next month, as well as an "open-ended" strike.

Playing Politics
A "tense" relationship between Connecticut Gov. John Rowland (R) and the state Legislature has complicated the industry-employee feud, the Hartford Courant reports. For his part, Rowland, responding to criticism from Democratic lawmakers and the nurses' union for not addressing workers' needs, pointed to a $200 million funding boost that he gave nursing homes in 1999, as well as a proposed $50 million increase over the next two years (Hartford Courant, 3/21). The governor urged the Legislature to increase funding for the homes, saying that he "has done everything he can" (AP/Hartford Courant, 3/20). However, in a letter to the governor, state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin Sullivan (D) said that "it is the job of the executive branch to craft a solution." The Courant reports that the tightening economy has made lawmakers less willing to "spend freely," and additional nursing home funding could take a back seat to planned improvements in mental health services and prescription drug benefits (Hartford Courant, 3/21).