Advocates Demand that Grove of Northbrook Rehire Workers Since It Appears that Workers Were Targeted Based on Race and Ethnicity
CONTACT: Tim Bell, ctbell@chicagoworkerscollaborative.org, Executive Director at Chicago Workers Collaborative
(November 2nd, 2016) — A broad coalition of immigrant rights advocates and faith leaders organized an event outside The Grove of Northbrook to protest the nursing home’s actions to unjustly terminate twenty nursing home workers.
The coalition delivered a letter to Legacy Healthcare (see below) demanding the immediate reinstatement of the workers without any retribution. The workers, mostly women of color who earn poverty level wages, had been faithfully working at the nursing home between 5 and 20 years.
The nursing home workers have been in contract bargaining for over a year and are fighting for a fair and living wage of $15 an hour and more resources to improve quality patient care.
But instead of bargaining in good faith and paying their workers more, The Grove of Northbrook chose to swiftly terminate the nursing home workers and to leave other staff members and residents in a difficult and compromising position with such upheaval. Advocates also expressed concern about the potential of short staffing and unsafe working conditions that could compromise quality resident care.
Several advocates left open the possibility of further protests and potentially legal action against The Grove of Northbrook if the nursing home did not correct this injustice against these workers.
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LETTER

November 2, 2016
Chaim Rajchenbach and Menachem Shabat
Owners of Legacy Healthcare
3450 Oakton Street,
Skokie, IL 60076
Dear Mr. Rajchenbach and Mr. Shabat,
On behalf of the organizations listed below, we stand in solidarity with the 20 hard-working employees you have recently and unjustly terminated from your facility at The Grove of Northbrook. Your actions harmed these workers’ livelihoods.
These workers at your nursing home do some of the hardest and most important work in our society, providing care for some of our most vulnerable citizens. But despite their hard work and dedication they were treated callously and unfairly by your organization. We simply cannot and will not stand idly by and allow these kinds of abuses to happen to workers and their families.
Members of our coalition and respective organizations are grateful for the service and quality care that these nursing home workers have been providing, some even as long as 20 years. We find it utterly deplorable that you might have unjustly, and potentially illegally, targeted and terminated these workers based on their race and national origin.
We demand that you do what is morally right and immediately bring back all 20 employees and defend their right to work at The Grove of Northbrook.
We look forward to hearing from you that you have taken swift action to correct this injustice. Please respond promptly to Tim Bell, Executive Director at Chicago Workers Collaborative at, tbell@chicagoworkerscollaborative.org, by next Wednesday, November 9th to confirm that you have resolved this urgent matter.
Our coalition is ready to stand in solidarity with these workers until this issue is resolved and they are treated with the dignity and respect these nursing home workers rightly deserve.
Sincerely,
Chicago Workers Collaborative
Northside Resource Center
Northside Action for Justice
Jobs with Justice
Arise Chicago
Northern Alliance for Immigrants
Jewish Voice for Peace
Community Renewal Society
Humboldt Park UMC
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors/United Methodist Immigration Ministry