Latest news with #SEIU1199NE
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Striking Butler Hospital workers rally at State House
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Hundreds of Butler Hospital staffers took their strike to the Rhode Island State House on Tuesday after an ongoing contract dispute reached a flashpoint. New England Health Care Employees Union (SEIU 1199NE), which represents more than 800 frontline staffers at the hospital, started an open-ended strike last week after negotiations with management stalled. RELATED: Butler Hospital warns striking staffers that benefits will soon expire The indefinite strike comes nearly two months after SEIU 1199NE first entered into contract negotiations with Butler Hospital's parent company, Care New England. The union's four contracts with Care New England expired on March 31, and there are currently more than 100 job openings at the hospital. SEIU 1199NE is asking hospital management to address the 'critical safety and economic concerns' that workers believe have contributed to the staffing shortage. Butler Hospital notified the striking workers on Monday that their last paycheck will come on May 23, and then their medical, dental and vision insurance will expire on May 31. MORE: Lawmakers urge Butler Hospital to settle contract dispute with union SEIU 1199NE claims Care New England has refused to bargain in good faith and consider their contract proposals. The union filed an unfair labor practices complaint against Butler Hospital last week that accuses management of threatening, coercing and retaliating against workers and making unilateral changes to condition of employment after their contracts expired. Meanwhile, Butler Hospital President and COO Mary Marran argues that the union disengaged from negotiations earlier this month and has refused to resume talks. The striking workers marched to Smith Hill and rallied for a couple of hours in an attempt to drum up support from state lawmakers. Dozens of staffers donning purple and yellow held up signs, waved union flags and chanted phrases like, 'Be fair to those who care.' In response to the rally, Rhode Island House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi urged both the union and Butler Hospital management to return to the bargaining table. 'Having access to the critical high-quality mental health services provided at Butler Hospital is vital to so many struggling Rhode Islanders, as well as those who love them,' Shekarchi said in a statement. 'Patients, family, friends and neighbors in every Rhode Island community are being impacted by the ongoing strike at Butler Hospital.' 'My hope is that management and the union at Butler Hospital reach a fair deal in the very near future,' he continued. Butler Hospital has already spent approximately $2 million on a temporary workforce to ensure there is no disruption in patient care throughout the strike. SEIU 1199NE asserts that the replacement workers are negatively impacting patients' quality of care, specifically in regards to call center wait times. 'Typically wait times are seconds and at most, a few minutes,' said Dan Camp, who works for Butler Hospital's Behavioral Health Services Call Center. 'The fact that those calling in to Butler have to wait upwards of one hour is absolutely unacceptable. Every minute counts when someone is reaching out for help during a crisis— that's why enough trained, experienced staff are critical to fill this need.' SEIU 1199NE said several union workers confirmed the lengthy wait times by attempting to reach the call center themselves. In a statement to 12 News, Marran stressed that Butler Hospital 'remains open for business' despite the union's decision to continue the strike. 'While we would prefer to have our own employees working with patients, we have highly-qualified replacement workers here who will continue to be here, fulfilling Butler's essential role by providing vital behavioral health services,' Marran said. 'Our team will be here when the union decides it is ready to come back to the table and work toward a solution.' Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
R.I. House momentum for a casino smoking ban is not enough. Unionized workers zero in on Senate.
'Please don't kill us we have families' reads the sign held by one Bally's employee during a State House rally on May 20, 2025. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) 'NO MORE SMOKE! NO MORE SMOKE!' That was the chant from about 150 casino workers who packed the steps inside the State House Tuesday — their backs to the House chamber, but their voices aimed directly across the rotunda to the Senate floor. It's the fourth such year they've backed the bill by Rep. Teresa Tanzi, a South Kingstown Democrat, seeking to end the Lincoln and Tiverton casinos' exemption from the state's 2005 indoor smoking ban. 'For the last 20 years, there has been a grave injustice happening in our casinos,' Tanzi told the crowd. 'These are our workers who are there day in, day out — they're doing a service for our state.' Tanzi's proposal has yet to reach the House floor. But unlike previous years, casino workers now have some additional institutional backing. For the first time, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi is a co-sponsor on Tanzi's legislation. Casino workers from 11 separate unions had help making noise from yellow and purple-clad striking Butler Hospital workers who gathered at the State House Tuesday to call on House Democrats meeting for a budget caucus. The Butler workers, who are members of SEIU 1199NE, want lawmakers to prioritize any state funding intended for hospitals for wages and staffing for frontline staff. 'Workers deserve a smoke-free workplace,' Jesse Martin, the executive vice president of SEIU 1199NE, told the crowd. 'People deserve the ability to do their work free from injury, free from these types of concerns.' Across the rotunda, companion legislation sponsored by Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski has still yet to be heard by the Senate Committee on Labor and Gaming chaired by the chamber's newest majority leader: Frank Ciccone III. Ciccone, a Providence Democrat, has been a staunch opponent of the ban citing concern that the state would lose millions in revenue should smoking completely disappear from the two casinos. It's the same position shared by the late Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, whom many advocates saw as the main reason smoking still remains inside Rhode Island's casinos. Newly-elected Senate President Valarie Lawson, an East Providence Democrat, has previously stated she personally supports a smoking ban. But she also indicated that she would like to see the standard committee review process play out. But Ciccone is instead looking to reach an agreement between Bally's and the union to expand existing non-smoking areas in the casinos. Ciccone said in an interview Tuesday that talks remain ongoing. 'If anything looks fruitful, we'll set up another meeting with everyone again,' he said in an interview Tuesday. 'Hopefully we'll get closer.' Whether Bally's wants to expand its nonsmoking offerings — or reduce the size of the smoking area — is still being kept under wraps. 'We don't have anything to report right now on the smoking issue,' Bally's spokesperson Patti Doyle said in an email Tuesday. 'Will certainly share updates when/if we do.' Union leaders remain adamant that a compromise won't solve the problem. Matt Dunham, president of Table Game Dealers Laborers Local 711, told Rhode Island Current that even with a larger non-smoking section at the state's two casinos, some workers would still be exposed to smoke. 'A lot of people are going to be left out,' he said in an interview before the rally. Dunham pointed to the 2024 non-smoking expansion at Bally's Lincoln casino, which he said has flaws. 'We still have to walk through cigarettes to get to our own break room,' he said. Ending Bally's smoking ban exemption is also a top priority for the AFL-CIO, which commissioned a poll in February that found nearly 7 in 10 survey respondents 'strongly' or 'somewhat' supported a smoking ban at the state's two casinos. 'We're taking the lead from the workers,' Rhode Island AFL-CIO Political Director Autumn Guillote said in an interview just before the rally. 'And the demand is still 100% from the advocates.' Vanessa Baker, an iGaming supervisor at Bally's Lincoln casino, said staff are constantly 'abused and assaulted' by the second-hand smoke that lingers throughout the two Rhode Island facilities. 'The Rhode Island casinos are allowing the safety and wellbeing of their employees and patrons at risk and showing that their employees are expendable,' Baker said. There was a time when smoking was temporarily banned inside Bally's two Rhode Island casinos: when they first reopened after being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But those rules were eventually lifted by March 2022. 'And all our lives changed for the worse,' Baker said. Philip Farinelli, a floor supervisor at Bally's Twin River Lincoln Casino, told the crowd he has dealt simultaneously with stage 3 neck and head cancer and stage 1 lung cancer, along with a heart attack, because of conditions caused by lingering smoke. 'I'm still here fighting today so I can work in a healthy environment,' he said. 'We all suffer — nose running, eyes itching — it's just every day, it's terrible.' Maegan Tikiryan, a server and bartender at Bally's Lincoln for 14 years, said she regularly deals with congestion and headaches from the casino's smoke. She's said she's seen three coworkers diagnosed with cancer and is worried it could happen to her as she begins to pursue a law degree at UMass Law. 'I don't want the smoke to kill me before I earn my degree,' Tikiryan said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Striking Butler Hospital workers may lose health benefits after May 31
Striking Butler Hospital workers are shown outside the Providence hospital's Blackstone Boulevard entrance on Saturday, May 17, 2025, the third day of the strike. (Photo by Dominique Sindayiganza courtesy of SEIU 1199NE) As striking workers picketed outside Butler Hospital for the fifth day Monday, the Providence psychiatric hospital's management announced that health insurance for employees not actively working will be terminated at the end of the month. About 800 members of New England Health Care Employees Union (SEIU 1199NE) were sent a letter informing them that medical, dental and vision benefits would expire on May 31. After that date, workers and their dependents will be ineligible for hospital-provided benefits unless they elect to continue their coverage through COBRA, the federal law allowing individuals to pay the full premium for their health coverage, including any portion previously paid by their employer. 'I know this is a scare tactic and all of that, but it's horrible,' Brooke Huminski, a social worker in Butler's Inpatient Assessment Center, said during an interview while picketing outside the hospital entrance along Blackstone Boulevard Monday at around 6:15 p.m. 'It's horrible to do this to someone.' Strike appears imminent at Butler Hospital Huminski said she knew it was always a possibility that hospital management could cut off health benefits. But the news comes at a stressful time as she and her partner are in the middle of an IVF treatment. Huminski said she also takes medication to manage a serious health condition. 'I've worked eight years evenings in the psychiatric emergency room,' Huminski said. 'I love my patients. I have loved my job. I love my colleagues, but I'm just heartbroken by this and terrified.' SEIU 1199NE represents clerical staff, registered nurses, mental health workers, and housekeeping and dietary staff at the 168-bed hospital owned by Care New England. All four of the union's contracts with Care New England expired on March 31. The union announced April 25 that its members had voted to authorize a strike as they continued to demand higher wages, pension program access for future employees and greater attention to workplace safety. The last time both sides met was on May 7, and SEIU went on strike at 6 a.m. May 15. According to the letter sent to SEIU 1199NE members, their last hospital paycheck will be May 23. Workers' life insurance, long-term disability, health care flexible spending and dependent care spending accounts and insurance for critical illness, accident and voluntary legal coverage ended on May 14. 'We have worked diligently to reach a fair and sustainable agreement, offering significant wage increases and improvements in workplace safety,' Butler President and Chief Operating Officer Mary E. Marran said in a statement posted on its website. 'Unfortunately, SEIU 1199 NE ended negotiations on May 7 and has not yet returned to the bargaining table, despite our continued willingness to resume talks.' SEIU 1199NE maintains that it submitted a proposal at 8 p.m. on May 7 but that hospital management never responded. 'We continue to urge SEIU 1199 NE to re-engage in good-faith negotiations so we can reach a resolution that refocuses our shared commitment on what matters most—our patients and the dedicated professionals who care for them,' Marran added. Rhode Island Current reached out to Care New England for additional comment, but a spokesperson said that Marran's message posted online would be the only comment. Rep. Rebecca Kislak, a Providence Democrat, has joined striking workers every day except Sunday. 'What is breaking my heart right now is that I'm seeing an employer that doesn't pay a whole lot to their employees to erode any goodwill and that worries me about the future of the hospital,' Kislak said. Rep. David Morales, a Providence Democrat, visited with striking workers to show support for the first four days but was not there on Monday. He said Monday night that he was surprised when he learned about termination of health benefits. 'I thought that the hospital would be proceeding in better faith when it came to reaching an agreement with these frontline health care workers and I'm disappointed that they've exercised this measure to shut them out of their benefits,' Morales said. 'It's a power move that sends a message that the bosses are in charge and that the workers should feel vulnerable.' Morales said union leaders shared with him that workers planned to start applying for unemployment insurance Monday night. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Strike appears imminent at Butler Hospital
Unionized workers hold an informational picket at the entrance to Butler Hospital on Blackstone Boulevard in Providence Monday, April 21, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Frontline workers at Butler Hospital unable to reach a new contract with hospital management will walk off the job starting at 6 a.m. Thursday, despite a push by state lawmakers to coax both sides back to the negotiating table. A May 8 letter to Butler Hospital President & COO Mary Marran signed by 44 legislators calls on the management of Rhode Island's only private, nonprofit psychiatric hospital to negotiate a new contract with SEIU 1199NE workers, whose last labor contracts expired on March 31. SEIU 1199NE represents nearly 800 professional and clerical staff, registered nurses, mental health workers, and housekeeping and dietary staff at the hospital on Blackstone Boulevard in Providence. The workers are demanding higher wages, pension program access for future employees and greater attention to workplace safety. The union announced April 25 that its members had voted to authorize a strike. 'None of us want to strike,' Ashley Ouellette, an R.N. float nurse who has worked at the 168-bed hospital owned by Care New England since 2016, said in a phone interview. She is a member of the union's executive board and bargaining committee. 'Nobody cares about these patients more than we do,' Ouellette said. 'As scary as it may be, we're going to do whatever we have to protect the work that is done here.' Butler Hospital frontline caregivers working without contract want more safety precautions A message from Marran to the Butler community posted Wednesday on the website indicated a strike appeared imminent. 'Please know we have worked hard to try to reach a satisfactory agreement with the union, but so far have been unsuccessful in these efforts,' Marran wrote. 'No doubt the days ahead will challenge us all. I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt care and concern for each and every one of you. Whether you will be participating in the picketing or remaining on duty to help care for our patients, you are the staff that make this organization a leader in behavioral healthcare and your dedication and hard work are deeply valued and appreciated.' A post on X by the city of Providence warned that traffic may be significant Thursday morning on Blackstone Boulevard, especially on the north side where Butler's entrance is. The 22 state senators and 22 state reps who wrote the letter to Marran expressed concern that the pending strike 'would impact patient care, overwhelm our emergency rooms, and place additional strain on state resources.' Butler serves some of the most vulnerable individuals in the state, with nearly 70% of patients relying on Medicaid or Medicare. The legislators' letter claimed the majority of Butler workers earn under $20 an hour, with some as low as $15.30. Marran disputed those figures in an email to Rhode Island Current clarifying key facts about the hospital's best, last and final proposal to the union on May 7. 'Only 20% of Butler's union employees currently make under $20 per hour, not the overwhelming majority,' Marran said. 'Under our latest proposal, that number would drop significantly within weeks of ratification, and by the end of the contract, 99% of our current union workforce would be above $20 per hour. We also offered substantial raises, preserved the pension for all current employees, guaranteed lower health plan contributions, and committed to partnering with the existing Health and Safety Committee on further improving staff safety.' Marran said she wanted the community to be aware that Butler will remain open and continue to provide care for patients. 'We are committed to reaching a meaningful agreement with the union and continuing to provide safe, compassionate, and uninterrupted care to the community we proudly serve,' she said. The cost of bringing in replacement workers will leave Butler with fewer resources in future proposals to the union, Marran said, She did not confirm how much the hospital will have to spend to cover the striking workers. SEIU 1199NE Executive Vice President Jesse Martin claimed the hospital planned ahead to bring in temporary labor at a cost of $1.8 million. The union said Wednesday there were 116 open positions at Butler. 'We have lost some really, really incredible staff to go work at other hospitals in the state or even out of state because of the wages here,' Ouellette said. Staff shortages have impacted staff training and onboarding, which union members say contributes to diminished workplace safety. SEIU 1199NE says patient assaults on staff increased 41% between 2022 to 2024 while 95% of Butler caregivers say Care New England was not doing enough to keep them safe at work. Ouellette said a friend and fellow nurse at the hospital is out of work with whiplash after being punched in the face by a patient a few days ago. 'We can't have new staff training new staff. That happens here and it's terrifying,' Ouellette said. 'I've seen it happen multiple times and I know my coworkers have seen it happen multiple times. Like there's absolutely no reason that a person who's been here for a couple of months should be training. They're still learning.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Union pushes Conn. nursing home strike deadline back to May 27
SEIU1199 workers demonstrating in 2021. (Photo by Yehyun Kim/ The state's largest health care workers' union agreed to push a May 19 strike deadline at 51 Connecticut nursing homes back until May 27, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Friday. A spokesman for SEIU 1199NE confirmed the delay, which the Lamont administration sought. 'Earlier this week, I met with union leadership representing Connecticut's nursing home and group home workers and expressed to them that I agree that their current wages do not match the value of the service they provide and that I join them in their effort to seek an increase in their compensation,' Lamont said. 'Additionally, I informed them that I believe there is a consensus among legislative leaders who also feel the same and that we are working to negotiate a state budget that includes support for this workforce.' The governor added that 'Connecticut's nursing home and group home workers do strenuous work on behalf of our most vulnerable residents, and my administration is committed to reaching a positive resolution on their behalf as soon as possible.' Union president Rob Baril said Friday that 'we had a couple of conversations with the governor's office, and we were extremely clear' about wage and benefit concerns. The union wants to boost starting pay for caregivers to $25 per hour and, over several years, elevate most employees to about $30 per hour. Most nursing home workers in the state currently earn between $18 and $22 per hour, a wage that leaves many members in poverty. Though wage and benefit negotiations technically are between private sector nursing homes and their staff, the state often plays a role in resolving labor-management disputes in this industry. That's because, on average, more than 80% of nursing home revenue involves patients whose care is covered by federal and state Medicaid dollars. Baril added the Lamont administration indicated it's working hard to identify the resources necessary to bolster wages and benefits. 'We are going to take them at their word,' Baril said. Providing the type of raises the union seeks would require a major new public investment in nursing homes. SEIU 1199NE estimates it would require an extra $550 million in Medicaid payments over the next two fiscal years combined, an annual average of $275 million, to fund the improved wages and benefits workers are seeking. About 50% of Connecticut's Medicaid expenses in most program areas are covered through federal reimbursement, which would make the effective annual cost to the state about $137.5 million. Meanwhile, Lamont and his fellow Democrats in the General Assembly's majority are already struggling to develop a new state budget that complies with the constitutional cap that keeps most spending growth in line with household income and inflation. They hope to adopt a new two-year state budget before the regular 2025 session ends on June 4. Earlier this month, the union set a May 19 strike deadline. The potential work stoppage would affect roughly 5,700 nursing home workers. But this year's state budget negotiations are far most complex than usual, given the uncertain future of Medicaid, a federal health care entitlement program run in cooperation with states. Congress set a goal of achieving cuts to Medicaid and other programs worth $880 billion over the next decade. Lamont's administration has modeled potential cuts, based on various proposals on Capitol Hill that could cost Connecticut anywhere from $186 million to $880 million per year. Matthew Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, the state's largest nursing home coalition, thanked state and union officials for their continuing efforts to avoid a strike. 'Separating nursing home residents from their caregivers causes real harm and trauma,' Barrett said. 'Workforce development, including wage and benefit enhancements as an employee retention and recruitment policy for both union and non-union employees, is essential to addressing the care needs of Connecticut's dramatically aging population.' This article first appeared on CT Mirror and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
