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Workers seeking a contract with UR Medicine Home Care have voted overwhelmingly for a three-day strike, their union says. The vote gives the union’s bargaining committee the authority to issue the company a 10-day notice.
For nine months, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and UR Medicine Home Care have been negotiating the first union contract for the company’s 110 professional and clinical home care workers. There are 14 outstanding economic issues on the table, including patient caseload standards and health insurance coverage, the union says.
While UR Medicine Home Care says it has been bargaining in good faith, the union says management has employed stall tactics—including leaving the table after only four hours of bargaining and coming unprepared with responses. Last month, 1199SEIU filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging the company’s negotiators bargained in bad faith by failing to return a counterproposal on the outstanding economic issues.
“The clinicians and professionals on the bargaining committee come to every negotiating session, putting compromises on the table, only to be met with no movement from the employer,” says Dave Simon, a physical therapist in the union. “We cannot negotiate a contract when one side is not willing to move. We do not want this to escalate further, but we are ready to strike if that is what it will take.
“Up to now our CEO, Greg Hutton, has not been present for negotiation sessions, and we feel that he should be here to help resolve this to avoid further escalation,” Simon adds.
UR Medicine Home Care provides health care and support services for home-bound and medically frail patients across Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates counties. The workers represented by the union assist patients with the transition from the hospital back into their homes and provide critical nursing care; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; and medical and social work services.
The union says workers feel current patient caseloads are unreasonable and that the company’s health insurance plan is expensive and limited, two factors that are contributing to high turnover. Tracey Harrison, 1199SEIU’s lead negotiator and vice president, says over 200 employees have left the company in the last two years.
Last week, workers held an informational picket to bring public attention to their dispute with UR Medicine Home Care, and this month workers delivered a petition with over 400 signatures to Hutton’s office listing their demands on the outstanding economic issues.
Margaret Wiant, the company’s director of communications and consumer relations, says agreements reached on other issues is evidence of UR Medicine Home Care’s desire to reach a fair contract. The two sides have reached deals on all non-economic items and about half of the contract’s economic terms, the union says.
“While URMHC recognizes and respects the right to engage in a strike, we are sincere in our desire to reach a fair agreement as demonstrated by our agreement to many of the provisions proposed,” she says. “We remain committed to treating each and every employee fairly—both those who are union-represented and those who are not.”
Negotiations were set to resume at 3:30 p.m. Monday, and further sessions are scheduled for Feb. 13 and Feb. 18.
Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.
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