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