Nursing home employees protest changes at facility
Administration says conditions for residents remain the same
By sherry conohan
Staff Writer

CHRIS KELLY Employees of Gateway Care Center picketed in front of the Route 36 nursing home last week as a protest against what they say are deteriorating conditions in the facility.

Union workers at the Gateway Care Center in Eatontown picketed in front of the nursing home last week to protest what they contend are shortages in staff and supplies that are affecting the care of patients.

The workers’ assertions were denied by Barbara Darlington, administrator of the Route 36 nursing home, who said the picketing and union charges were the outgrowth of a labor dispute.

"We have more staff here and more supplies here than we’ve ever had," said Darlington, who said she has worked at the nursing home for seven years.

Roy Garcia, communications coordinator for Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose New Jersey headquarters is in Edison, said 45 to 50 of the 85 union workers employed at the Gateway Care Center participated in the Feb. 6 picketing.

Garcia said they were protesting a cutback in workers on the housekeeping and laundry staff from about 25 to 13, in addition to a reduction in supplies.

He said that because there are fewer laundry workers, the certified nursing assistants (CNAs), who provide about 80 percent of the patient care, have to spend some of their time washing clothes for the patients. He stressed that he was not claiming they had to leave the floor to do this chore.

The result of this, he continued, is that the CNAs do not have enough time to tend to their normal tasks, which are to bathe and groom patients who can’t take care of themselves and turn over bedridden patients every two hours so the patients don’t develop bed sores.

Overall, he said, the number of employees in the nursing home is 27 percent below optimal staffing.

Garcia went on to say that the shortage of supplies has occurred in diapers, soap and shaving cream. As a result, for instance, he said, sometimes diapers can’t be changed for 12 hours because there are not enough.

"Our concern is that residents are not getting what they need and their families should know that," he said.

Darlington disputed Garcia’s assertions.

"We haven’t had any reductions in staff or any reduction in supplies," she said. "This is a labor dispute with the union over the contract."

Neil Frank, the New York labor lawyer who represents Gateway Care Center called the union charges, "a sham."

The issue, he said, is that the nursing home and the union reached full agreement on a new three-year contract and memorandum of understanding on Nov. 18 and now the union is trying to reneg on that agreement.

He said he, as the nursing home representative, and the union representative initialed every paragraph and signed their names at the end.

"Now the union is saying it was a mistake, there was a misunderstanding, a clerical error was made," Frank said. "We have filed unfair labor practice charges with the national labor relations board."

Frank said the union is objecting to a small clause — five words — on health insurance payments, which are base on gross payroll. He said the clause eliminates certain hours for which employees are paid from the gross payroll.

"The company has not violated the contract," he said.

Garcia said the changes he alleges occurred with a change in the ownership of Gateway Care Center. Darlington said a change in ownership occurred in October, but it was seamless and there were no reductions in staff or supplies.

Darlington called the union’s tactics "despicable" for having alarmed relatives of patients and "not a very nice way" to deal with the labor dispute.

"When they (patients’ relatives) have somebody here who is sick and elderly, they don’t need this added worry," she said.

Garcia said that before taking to the picket line, the union had tried to sit down with the new management to discuss their concerns, but with no success. Franks said that was a lie. He said the union met with Darlington on the two issues that Garcia had raised and others.

The union is, in fact, following the grievance procedure set forth in the contract it is now trying to reject. That contract is an extension of the previous existing contract he said.

Garcia said the national headquarters of the SEIU is located in Washington, D.C., and the New Jersey local has 6,000 to 7,000 members who are employed as CNAs and in housekeeping, laundry, dietary and similar jobs.

"We are the largest nursing home union in the state," he said.