CVH Staff Speak Out: Short Staffing Crisis is Hurting Patient Care

Mental health staff travelled to the Capitol on Tuesday, June 2 to deliver a powerful message to Governor Rell: chronic, rampant short-staffing at CVH is “a disaster waiting to happen.”

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help striking workers

If you want to help support the health care workers on strike against Spectrum Healthcare, please write a check to:

 “The 1199 Strike and Defense Fund”

and mail it to;

77 Huyshope Ave.

Hartford CT 06106

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Negotiations Update: Spectrum Moves Backwards

Winsted, CT—In negotiations last night, Spectrum showed their true colors by presenting a new proposal that moves backwards from their last position prior to the strike.

“We came here prepared to settle a fair contract,” Vice President Almena Thompson told the sixty-plus Spectrum strikers packing the conference room at Northwestern CT Community College in Winsted. “Instead, we got insulting new demands even more unacceptable than before. And they don’t even have the courage to face us.”

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RALLY IN THE VALLEY

Join the members of District 1199 who are fighting for fairness.
Birmingham Health Center Picket Line
210 Chatfield Street, Derby
Saturday, May 8, 2010
11AM to 1PM

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Governor's Agents Storm Out After Failing to Produce Analysis of Impact to Services, Costs to Pension Plan of Latest Retirement Incentive

Wednesday evening, Rell Administration representatives abruptly left a planned meeting with leaders of SEBAC to discuss the governor's latest Early Retirement Incentive Program (ERIP). The governor's plan could cost taxpayers over $1 billion dollars while decimating state services. Rell’s representatives stormed out of the meeting after failing to produce any analysis of the impact to services and the costs to our pension plan.

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On Workers’ Memorial Day, Striking Spectrum Nursing Home Workers Cite Company’s Abysmal Health and Safety Record

Hartford, CT— Members of District 1199 currently on strike at four Spectrum Healthcare nursing homes joined hundreds of other Connecticut workers at the Capitol Wednesday in observance of Workers Memorial Day. Wednesday’s observance of Workers Memorial Day will be especially solemn this year after the deaths and injuries resulting from the fatal explosion in Middletown in February.

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Nursing Home Residents and Families, Labor, Community Rally with Striking Spectrum Caregivers

• Current and former residents speak out on care before and after strike
• Labor organizations, elected leaders, rally around nursing home workers
• Unions cite Unfair Labor Practices, hiring permanent replacements as “an injury to all”
• Employer: no negotiations until May 3rd

In the second week of an Unfair Labor Practice strike by almost 400 nursing home caregivers employed by Spectrum Healthcare, labor organizations around the state joined current and former residents of Spectrum nursing homes to support the striking workers.

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1199 Spectrum Strike In The News

• News Coverage from News Channel 8

• News Coverage from Channel 3 Eyewitness News

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Nursing Home Workers Begin Second Day of Unfair Labor Practice Strike at Spectrum Homes

Friday, April 16, 2010 -- Nurses, nursing assistants and elder-care support staff at skilled nursing homes operated by Spectrum Healthcare are hitting the picket lines again this morning in four Connecticut towns. Almost 400 caregivers at the four facilities - Birmingham Health Center in Derby, Hilltop Health Center in Ansonia, Laurel Hill Health Center in Winsted and Park Place in Hartford went on strike over Unfair Labor Practices on the part of their corporate operator, Spectrum. Caregivers at the four striking homes have been working under the terms of their previous contracts, which expired more than a year ago (March 15, 2009).

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SEBAC Response to Latest Demands by Governor Rell's Budget Chief:

Last year, SEBAC members agreed to about three quarters of a billion dollars in savings to help offset the budget deficits for the previous and current fiscal years. This year, SEBAC leadership presented the Administration its "Jobs For Every Working Family Proposal" which, along with ideas for jump starting Connecticut's ailing economy, included proposals to involve frontline workers in creating efficiencies in order to meet the ever growing demand for public services in down economic times.

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CVH needs more staff for safe, quality care!

On Tuesday March 2nd, 1199ers from CVH gathered in front of Battell Hall to send a message to the State of Connecticut: We need better staffing to provide quality care to our patients and the community. 

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District 1199 Haiti Relief Effort

We have all been moved and stunned by the disaster that continues to develop in Haiti. Our union is especially and very personally affected as some 500 members of 1199 come from and/or have family in Haiti.

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Nursing Home Division Contract Negotiations Update

Of the nursing home agreements that expired between March and December of 2009, 1199ers have now settled 32 contracts on the same general pattern. While the details vary, the general pattern includes:

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Educators, Nurses, Employers, Workforce Advocates and Legislators Refute Governor’s Rationale for Closing State LPN Program Closures

More than 100 licensed practical nurses and aspiring nursing students packed a hearing room at the Legislative Office Building today to participate in a news conference. Together with nurses, educators, workforce development advocates, 1199 LPN members, employers and our 1199 Training and Upgrading Fund, they strongly refuted Governor Rell’s rationale for discontinuing 10 LPN training programs at Connecticut vocational schools around the state.

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