Uninsured nursing home workers threaten strike

By Tommy Hallissey

Dozens of workers at the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center are threatening to go on strike if their healthcare benefits are not immediately restored.

On Nov. 28, a mob of angry employees protested outside the nursing home, at 3400 Cannon Place, carrying signs and chanting. The demonstration was organized by 1199 SEIU, the health care union that represents the 250 employees at the rehabilitation center.

According to workers, they've been without health insurance since Nov. 5. The union charges Helen Sieger, the center's owner, failed to make timely or complete payments to various benefit funds, which is why the employees are uninsured.

"No one can imagine working in health care helping people and not having health coverage themselves," said Isaac Nortey, vice president of 1199 SEIU.

June Salmon, an employee of the nursing home, said she now has to pay $50 a day for two diabetes pills. "If you cut my health insurance, I will die," said Ms. Salmon outside the picket. "How can you cut my health coverage?"

Ms. Sieger's labor lawyer, Joel Cohen, claims the loss of benefits is the union's fault. "The reason they don't have health insurance is because the union cut them off," he said. "The union is using that as an excuse to pressure the nursing home."

According to Mr. Cohen, Ms. Sieger is behind on her payments, but no further behind than other nursing homes in the city. He questions why the union is picketing the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center.

This is not the first time workers at the nursing home have threatened to strike. According to the union, employees at the Kingsbridge Heights Rehabilitation Center have been without a contract since 2000. A threeday strike was proposed in May 2006, but the center was able to squash the threat.

"We were advised that if we went out on strike we might not be able to work when we think we could, within those three days," Fay Whitter, a nursing home worker, testified. In anticipation of a 2005 strike, the nursing home administration sent a letter to staff. "…Because we have a duty to our patients, we will have to hire temporary replacements for you and we probably will have to keep them on the jobs of those who strike until the union agrees not to call further strikes over the next few months or until a union contract is signed," the letter read.

Now as a new strike date looms, 1199 SEIU is alleging the nursing home is trying to break the union. A form letter addressed to the union was circulated around the Cannon Place nursing home. "Effective immediately, I resign from membership in the union and all of it affiliates," the letter begins. "I have just learned that I was never required to be a formal member of the union, contrary to the misinformation that your union spreads."

A signature was all that was needed to withdraw one more voice from the union. The workers didn't take the bait.

The nursing home, which serves 400 residents, is facing other legal and financial troubles. Ms. Sieger has been in and out of court in a divorce proceeding with her husband, Chaim Sieger. The $16 million estate includes the nursing home.

The case is now in the New York State Court of Appeals, where Ms. Sieger is appealing an $8 million judgment in favor of her ex-husband. It is unclear what the future holds for the nursing home.

This is part of the December 6, 2007 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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