Pennsylvania healthcare workers voted to send strike notices to the state’s three largest nursing home chains—Guardian Healthcare, Priority Healthcare, and Comprehensive Healthcare—as well as Shenandoah Heights Healthcare. The companies combined have 24 facilities across the state.
An announcement from SEIU Healthcare says the strikes are related to “the companies’ failures to provide information about agency staffing and costs, and for not bargaining in good faith.”
The union has called for wage increases, employer-paid health insurance, succession clauses in the event of a facility sale, and “a written commitment not to interfere in any way with the rights of workers who choose to form their union to demand accountability from private equity firms and bad-actor nursing home chains.”
Strikes can start as early as September 2nd, following National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) rules that require unions at healthcare facilities to provide at least 10 days’ notice before striking.