Facility management spent hundreds of thousands fighting union, instead of investing in quality care
Stockton, CA - Community members joined with workers from O'Connor Woods nursing home care at a candlelight vigil to protest the misuse of resources by O'Connor Woods management. Over the past couple of years, management at O'Connor Woods, rather than making investments that ultimately benefit the residents, has directed significant resources on lawyers and consultants, nearly half a million dollars in 2007 alone, much of it to further drag out a four-year effort by workers to secure a new contract.
"This is illogical. Management at O'Connor Woods gains nothing by pouring money into finding ways to delay settling a contract with its workers," said Martha Draughn, who lives in Stockton. "In fact, in addition to wasting valuable resources, they are hurting their own ability to provide quality care and lowering the morale of those who take care of the residents - many of whom are our friends and family."
Community members are also circulating a petition to the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, who sponsor O'Connor Woods. In calling on the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael to act, the community cites Pope Benedict XVI's most recent encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," or "Charity in Truth," which states, "The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum [60], for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honoured today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level."
The petition objects to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by the nursing home's management to fight the union, instead of investing that same money in quality care and calls on the Sisters to urge management to settle a fair union contract with their employees. It also points out that employees at O'Connor Woods earn less and have fewer benefits than others who work at comparable facilities in the area.
"I work hard to give good care to our residents. But our health plan is so bad, and our wages so low, that I was forced financially to skip some of my own medication leading up to my heart attack last year. I wish management's priority was on helping me stay healthy to do the best job I can for our residents, rather than on other things like spending money to fight our union," said Kathy Santillanes who works in housekeeping.
At O'Connor Woods a Certified Nurses Assistant starts at $9.95 per hour, while a CNA at other facilities in the area, would start in the range of $11.10 to $13.01 per hour. The starting wage of a housekeeper at O'Connor Woods is $8.00 per hour, compared with the starting range of $8.85 to $11.78 at other facilities in the area. For comparison, in 2007 Scott Sinclair, the Executive Director of O'Connor Woods, earned a salary of $203,694.
The effort to prevent a contract settlement also targeted residents. The facility's Executive Director, Scott Sinclair, tried to frighten residents and turn them against their own caregivers by telling them that them their rent would increase if workers got a contract. While there has been no contract over the last four years, management has steadily increased the residents' rents.
Contact: Adriana Surfas, o: 510.869.2246/c: 510.541.4114, media@seiu-uhw.org
SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW) is the largest hospital and healthcare union in the western United States with more than 150,000 members. We unite every type of healthcare worker with a mission to achieve high-quality healthcare for all. SEIU-UHW is part of the 2.1 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's fastest-growing union. Learn more at www.seiu-uhw.org.
Source: SEIU-UHW
