https://naviga.triblive.com/local/westmoreland/tentative-deal-reached-in-nursing-home-strike-pickets-down/
Tentative deal reached in nursing home strike; pickets down
A seven-day strike by workers at four nursing homes in the region, including one in North Huntingdon, could end Saturday if union members approve a tentative contract reached Thursday, according to the union representing the striking workers.
The Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania said Thursday it reached the tentative contract with Comprehensive Healthcare Management, for workers at The Grove facilities in North Huntingdon, New Castle, Harmony and Washington. The union’s walkout began on Sept. 2 as an unfair labor practice strike in a filing with the National Labor Relations Board in Pittsburgh.
Details of the tentative agreement were not released, said Karen Gownley, a SEIU spokeswoman. The union members Thursday paused their picketing outside the nursing homes while they meet to discuss details of the agreement and vote over the next day on whether to ratify the contract, Gownley said.
The SEIU’s former contract covering nurses and related workers expired on June 30. The temporary pact was a nine-month extension of a previous contract that had expired, the union said.
While workers at the North Huntingdon nursing home said wages and benefits were among the issues in the strike, the SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania has raised the issue of how nursing homes would spend the state’s $600 million investment that has been directed toward nursing homes. A portion of the money is to be spent on staffing and care of residents, to tackle the staffing challenges.
Nursing home workers at the two other Comprehensive Healthcare-owned homes —Murrysville Health and Rehab and Meyersdale Health and Rehab — were scheduled to go on strike Friday, but those workers will be covered by the same agreement and will not strike, Gownley said.
While one nursing home company strike may be coming to an end, hundreds more workers from nine central-and-eastern Pennsylvania nursing homes owned by Priority Management of Dallas, and one privately-owned one, remain on strike.
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