Mobilization for May 17 Rally Grows as 1199 Wins Contract with Icare Nursing Homes

1199 union nursing home workers at Icare facilities agreed to a tentative contract Thursday that sets a historic $20 per hour minimum wage for certified nursing assistants and $30 per hour for licensed practical nurses, averting Friday’s nursing home strike.

On top of the wage increases, all Icare workers will have a pension and receive additional funding to cover health care insurance costs and wellness programs.

In order to allow for further negotiations Friday's work stoppages have been postponed. New strike notices were issued for 26 nursing home facilities and 2,800 workers for Monday, June 7th at 6:00 AM (Icare, Genesis, and Autumn Lake) pending final agreements.

Strike notices previously set for May 28th with over 1,200 workers at 13 facilities remain in place. The strike notices for May 28th and June 7th combined cover 4,000 frontline workers at 39 nursing homes in Connecticut.

District 1199 SEIU president Rob Baril acknowledged the role of the Governor and State Legislative leaders in negotiations, “making it possible to meet the goal of a Long-Term Care Workers’ Bill of Rights for nursing home caregivers”

The struggle of nursing home workers is part of the bigger fight of all essential workers for a state budget that provides adequate funding for workers, for the services they provide to the community, and for measures to achieve racial equity.

Hundreds are expected to come to the State Capitol on Monday, May 17 for a Tax Day rally organized by Recovery for All Coalition of 45 organizations. They are calling on Governor Lamont to approve a budget that includes increased funding and enables improvements in the lives of working people, especially working people of color.

The legislature's Finance and Appropriations committees have agreed upon a budget that incorporates several proposals to increase revenue by raising taxes on billionaires, who pay a lower combined tax rate than everyone else, and whose wealth increased during the pandemic. So far, the Governor has not agreed to sign an equitable budget that includes revenue increases.

Rally participants will gather under the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park at 5 pm on Monday, May 17 and march to the State Capitol to demand a real Recovery for All! In addition letters are being sent to the Governor with the message that Connecticut needs a fair and equitable budget. Send a letter here: https://act.recoveryforallct.com/

“I can't wait for May 17,” said Angel Hawes, an 1199 home care worker, speaking at the Connecticut People's World virtual May Day rally on May 2. “I'm going to fight until we get what we need and until Ned Lamont listens to us.”

Hawes said she is fighting for respect and for her needs and the needs of those who are in her care. In February she participated in a civil disobedience action at Allied Resources, the agency the state uses to pay home care workers, because “they were not paying our members,and just totally disrespecting us.”

“It's just the disrespect all around,” she said. “They don't want to give us health insurance, and people are dying. They don't want to give us raises, they don't want to give us sick time. How can we take care of our clients if we're sick? That means we're forced to go to work sick. And that shouldn't happen. So I'm still fighting”