Lake Worth Beach nursing home workers protest for higher wages

LAKE WORTH BEACH — Trecia Eldridge sighed when she described working at Avante at Lake Worth nursing home. "Burned out, drained, exhausted," she said.

After more than a year and half of being called essential but not being treated as such, union members and organizers said, they've had enough.

"We are here to raise our voice for our residents, for our senior citizens," nursing assistant Nadia Bataille said into a bullhorn. "They are our family. We CNAs (certified nursing assistants) are taking care of them. And we want the best quality care for them. In order to do that we also need a living wage."

More than a dozen fellow certified nursing assistants repeated the same words Thursday afternoon as they protested just outside the nursing home on Brentwood Avenue near the northern end of North A Street.

Unionized workers gathered with banners and a bullhorn to demand that the "short staffed" long-term care facility raise wages so that qualified medical staff can continue to work there and care for its elderly patients. They wore purple union shirts and held banners, bearing phrases such as "No poverty wages for caregivers."

Avante managers did not return requests for comment. An employee working the front desk Thursday afternoon said management instructed her to say they have no comment.

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Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, employees have left the nursing home for higher-paying facilities, said medical staff and their union, United Healthcare Workers East. Nursing assistants such as Eldridge who have stayed said they have to regularly work 100 hours a week because Avante's low pay drives staff away while repelling potential hires.

State Rep. Omari Hardy, a Democrat running for Congress, was the only elected official to speak at the rally. "A lot of folks talk about organized labor as being self-interested and being selfish," he said. "Well, call me crazy, but I happen to believe these workers know what they're talking about. ... I happen to believe they're not mistaken as to the condition in which they're working. I happen to believe they should be trusted because they are on the front lines."

Avante's nursing assistant pay starts at $11 an hour under the contract it previously bargained with the union, which represents the facility's nursing assistants, housekeepers and activity assistants, union organizer Deborah Stanley said. But new hires with more experience in the field start at higher wages under the contract, she noted.

Certified nursing assistants feed, bathe and dress patients, along with helping them use the bathroom; brushing their teeth and hair; helping them walk. These trained professionals also sit and talk with patients, keeping them company, especially if the patients have dementia. The highest level of education Avante asks of certified nursing assistants is a high school diploma or GED.

The Avante union contract expired Dec. 31, Stanley said, but its provisions are still in place as the union and the nursing home negotiate a new one. Avante does not offer hazard pay, she said, so if an employee tests positive for COVID-19, they have to use regular paid time off.

While the protesting health-care workers and their union say they want higher pay so they can provide better care for the nursing home's residents, most reportedly remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, which is especially deadly to the elderly.

Just under 38% of Avante's staff are fully vaccinated, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported Oct. 10. The facility does not require staff be inoculated. But unvaccinated employees must get tested weekly for COVID-19.

La Posada Senior Living in Palm Beach Gardens announced in August that it will require staff to get vaccinated. Since then, the share of health-care personnel who are fully vaccinated has jumped to 99% from about 55%. Statewide, an average of 58% of nursing home staff are inoculated as of Oct. 17, according to CMS. Long-term care facilities report these figures regularly to the federal agency.

Less than 75% of staff in most Palm Beach County nursing homes are immunized, CMS data shows, and 68% of those eligible in Palm Beach County are fully vaccinated

Meanwhile, 68% of vaccine-eligible residents ages 12 and older in Palm Beach County and Florida have gotten both of the two-dose shots or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson formula.

And United Healthcare Workers East does not support nursing homes requiring staff to get vaccinated. "We have always believed that education should be the first strategy to promote vaccination, and since the (federal) mandates were announced we have been focusing our energy on communicating one-on-one with our members to answer their questions and encourage vaccination," the union's New York City headquarters said Thursday in an email.

President Joe Biden announced in September that CMS would issue mandates requiring medical facilities' workers to get vaccinated. The mandates haven't come yet.

Hardy said he supports mandates. "If they take care of folks, they should take the vaccine to keep patients safe," he said. "The union is gonna have its position, but I believe it's important that people who rely on health care workers to care for them, that they have peace of mind and health and safety."

The Thursday protest in Lake Worth Beach was also part of a statewide campaign by United Healthcare Workers East, which represents 5,000 health care workers in Palm Beach County and 25,000 in Florida. They plan to hold similar rallies for nursing home workers in cities such as Miami, Tampa and Tallahassee.

"We love these people," Eldridge, the Avante nursing assistant, said about her patients. "That's why we are in this field. We care for these people."

Chris Persaud is a data reporter for The Palm Beach Post.

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