Contract approved for Frackville nursing home, seven other Saber facilities in PA

Feb. 4—Unionized employees at a Frackville nursing home and seven other facilities in Pennsylvania owned by Saber Healthcare Group are working under a new contract, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania announced.

Some 500 workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new three-year agreement that SEIU officials call "a major victory in union nursing home workers' ongoing campaign to improve care in their industry," SEIU officials said in a news release Wednesday.

The contract covers workers at Broad Mountain Health & Rehabilitation Center, Frackville; Mountain City Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Hazle Twp.; Ambler Extended Care Center, Ambler; Bryn Mawr Extended Care Center, Bryn Mawr; Julia Ribaudo Extended Care Center, Lake Ariel; Langhorne Gardens Health & Rehabilitation Center, Langhorne; Slate Belt Health & Rehabilitation, Bangor; and Spruce Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation, Reading.

The contract includes statewide wage increases and improvements to health care that will help retain and recruit more caregivers for residents, according to SEIU. It will help facilities meet staffing ratios that union caregivers demanded and won last year through updated state regulations.

Highlights of the new contract include raises of up to $3 an hour for some workers and average raises of 20% over the life of the agreement; improvements in health care, including providing all workers with union health insurance; wage scales and longevity bonuses that reward staff who showed up for residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; and a contractually enforceable commitment to safe staffing.

"These workers are relentless advocates for their residents, and they worked hard for a contract that helps bring staff back to the bedside," said Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the union that represents the nursing home workers. "It's through productive negotiations like we had with Saber, where we reach a fair contract that invests in workers and residents, that we can begin to raise standards of quality care in all nursing homes."

SEIU has now reached agreements at over 60 nursing homes across the state, often with over 20% pay increases that are "vital to stabilizing this critical workforce," Yarnell said.

Germaine Bonikowski, chapter president at Mountain City, calls the contract a "win-win for everybody."

"This is one of the best contracts ever," Bonikowski said Thursday in an email. "No one was left behind. I was especially happy that the workers who have shown up for our residents got recognized for all the years they put in here."

Bonikowski, a 38-year certified nursing assistant at Mountain City, said wage increase and health care benefits should help attract more employees.

About 130 employees at the Mountain City facility are represented under the contract.

In the backdrop of President Joe Biden announcing a federal commitment to nursing home reforms last year, Saber recognized the status quo would not be enough to help address the workforce crisis and improve resident care, SEIU officials said.

"We received the largest wage increases that I've seen since I've worked at my home," Christine Peters, a certified nursing assistant who has been at Broad Mountain for 25 years, was quoted in a SEIU news release. "We also got better health care — which health care workers deserve. To me, it shows that Saber is understanding what we're doing a little more, that it's not an easy job. We are caring for people's lives, and we should be able to take care of ourselves, too.

"These are people's loved ones, and they become our loved ones, too," she continued. "Now that workers at Saber-owned buildings are under one contract, we'll have more power to raise standards. ... It all comes back to taking care of our residents."

Contact the writer: sgalski@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3586

___

(c)2023 the Republican & Herald (Pottsville, Pa.)

Visit the Republican & Herald (Pottsville, Pa.) at republicanherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.