New Radio Ads Target Nursing Home Industry For Failure to Protect Workers

NH Lobby Day

Scroll below to listen to radio ads; and the full text of the letter signed by 78 state lawmakers calling out the nursing home industry’s failure to respect and protect our workforce during this Covid-19 pandemic.

(April 22, 2020) — SEIU Healthcare Illinois launched two new radio ads today to elevate our nursing home workers on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic and our demands for PPE (personal protective equipment) and safety measures including better staffing, immediately reporting all Covid positive cases to staff, broad testing for all residents and workers, and paid sick time without punishment. Our workforce is getting sick, dying, and stretched to the limits but the nursing home industry still refuses to end poverty wages or enact robust hazard pay for ALL workers. (Capitol Fax posted our radio ads and letter from lawmakers).

Script: “Profits-Above-Safety
I’m a Nursing home worker on the frontlines of this crisis. Other Black women, like me, are risking our lives everyday, working in unsafe workplaces, and not receiving hazard pay for our essential work.

Across Illinois, residents in nursing homes are dying…. workers like me are dying. We need nursing home owners to put our safety and our patients’ safety above their profits. We are urging our lawmakers to get involved on behalf of our patients’ lives — and ours too.


Script: “She’s My Mom”
My daughter cries every day when I go to work at a nursing home, not knowing if I’ll be safe.

I hear the cries of patients — crying because they’re getting sick, care workers are getting sick, and because nursing home owners refuse to help.

Nursing-home workers — Black, brown, and white women — deserve a safe workplace and hazard pay for our work on the frontlines — we deserve to be able to protect our families and communities from getting sick. Because I’m not just a nursing-home worker —[Daughter’s voice:] She’s my mom, too.


To: Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities

From: Members of the Illinois General Assembly

Re: The fight against COVID-19

Date: April 21, 2020

The COVID-19 public health crisis has our Country living through unprecedented times. Our State is under a stay-at-home order resulting in school closures, drastically altered restaurant operations, and banned gatherings of ten people or more. In the midst of this stay-at-home order, some services cannot stop and some workers must still report to the frontlines.

Nursing home workers are among those our state is depending on to show up and care for our loved ones. As elected officials – as Illinoisans – we owe them and their families a great deal of gratitude and deep appreciation. We are concerned to hear that there is not enough PPE being provided to workers in ALL job classifications in nursing homes.

If we are going to flatten the curve of COVID-19, we have to provide the appropriate PPE, for workers and consumers to feel safe. Workers should be informed and trained on how to deal with COVID-19 in all facilities for their safety as well as the residents. Our collective goal is to save as many lives as possible and that can only be done when employers protect their employees.

In addition, these workers are among the lowest paid in the state. Last year the Illinois General Assembly took action to increase the reimbursement rates for nursing homes by $240 million. We supported this measure, in part because it was assured by the nursing home industry that a significant portion of this money would be spent on direct care staff – the very staff on the frontlines fighting back against COVID-19.

Unfortunately, we’ve learned that this hasn’t been the case as workers from over 100 nursing facilities are bargaining to finalize a contract before their current agreement expires at the end of this month.

As some of the lawmakers who authorized this funding, we remain hopeful that the nursing home industry intends to offer their workers a contract that truly reflects the large increase in dollars that the industry was given.

This also comes in light of news that the nursing home industry is asking for millions more in immediate state funding for purposes which are unclear. We are alarmed to learn of this request when the money previously authorized hasn’t yet been used for its intended purpose.

We urge the Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities to thoroughly consider their actions in this extremely trying time.

Workers deserve respect and dignity. This starts with adequate personal protective equipment, a level of paid sick time that you would expect for yourself, and wages that don’t keep employees living in poverty.

If the COVID-19 public health pandemic has accomplished one thing it has uncovered the very real problem that frontline healthcare workers haven’t received the support, respect, and compensation they deserve to support themselves and their families.

Please consider contributing to the solution. Now is the time to save lives – not pennies.

Regards,

State Senator Robert Peters

State Senator Ann Gillespie

State Senator Emil Jones, III

State Senator Ram Villivalam

State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr.

State Senator Antonio Munoz

State Senator Melinda Bush

State Senator Heather A. Steans

State Senator Omar Aquino

State Senator Iris Y. Martinez

State Senator Kimberly A. Lightford

State Senator Laura Fine

State Senator Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant

State Senator Napoleon Harris, III

State Senator Christopher Belt

State Senator Cristina Castro

State Senator Robert F. Martwick

State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins

State Senator Celina Villanueva

State Senator Michael E. Hastings

State Representative Kelly Cassidy

State Representative Lindsey LaPointe

State Representative Marcus C. Evans, Jr.

State Representative Mary E. Flowers

State Representative Sonya M. Harper

State Representative Robyn Gabel

State Representative Lamont J. Robinson, Jr.

State Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz

State Representative Joyce Mason

State Representative Jonathan “Yoni” Pizer

State Representative Frances Ann Hurley

State Representative Sam Yingling

State Representative Emanuel Chris Welch

State Representative La Shawn K. Ford

State Representative Arthur Turner

State Representative Jawaharial Williams

State Representative Justin Slaughter

State Representative Thaddeus Jones

State Representative Robert Rita

State Representative Nicholas K. Smith

State Representative Natalie A. Manley

State Representative Edgar Gonzalez, Jr.

State Representative Jaime M. Andrade, Jr.

State Representative Delia C. Ramirez

State Representative Aaron M. Ortiz

State Representative Kelly M. Burke

State Representative Will Guzzardi

State Representative Michelle Mussman

State Representative Daniel Didech

State Representative John C. D’Amico

State Representative Deb Conroy

State Representative Jonathan Carroll

State Representative Curtis J. Tarver, II

State Representative Mary Edly-Allen

State Representative Kambium Buckner

State Representative LaToya Greenwood

State Representative Maurice A. West, II

State Representative John Connor

State Representative Gregory Harris

State Representative Carol Ammons

State Representative Anne Stava-Murray

State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth

State Representative Camille Y. Lilly

State Representative Karina Villa

State Representative Theresa Mah

State Representative Michael J. Zalewski

State Representative Andre Thapedi

State Representative Diane Pappas

State Representative Anthony DeLuca

State Representative Kathleen Willis

State Representative Barbara Hernandez

State Representative Katie Stuart

State Representative Ann M. Williams

State Representative Anna Moeller

State Representative Michael Halpin

State Representative Mark L. Walker

State Representative Bob Morgan

State Representative Larry Walsh, Jr.


CC: Governor J.B. Pritzker

Speaker Michael J. Madigan

Senate President Don Harmon

Mayor Lori Lightfoot

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle