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SEIU member Nessa Higgins spoke during a press conference at the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, as (L to R) Teresa Brees, T.J. Hart, Michelle Armstrong and Labor Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach looked on.
Thousands of nursing home workers across Minnesota are likely to see their pay dramatically increase over the next three years after the state’s new board to oversee workforce standards in the industry authorized a $20.50 minimum wage April 29.
The new wage floor will phase in over the next three years, with higher minimums for certified nursing assistants ($24 per hour), trained medication aides ($25) and licensed practical nurses ($28.50).
DFL state lawmakers passed a bill last year establishing the Nursing Home Standards Board, the first of its kind in the U.S. It was a top political priority for three unions representing nursing home workers: SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the United Steelworkers.
At a press conference following the board’s vote, workers praised the new standards as historic. Some became emotional in discussing the implications for themselves, their fellow workers and nursing home residents across Minnesota, where the industry has seen some of the worst staffing shortfalls in the nation.
“I have been doing this work for most of my lifetime, and I have seen the consistency of staff drop over time,” said Michelle Armstrong, a nurse and member of Local 1189 who served on the standards board. “We’ve lost the continuity of care, which hurts workers and residents.
“We need to do everything we can to change things, and today, I hope, is a big step forward.”
Nessa Higgins, who works at the Estates of Chateau in south Minneapolis, said that over her 25-year career, she has watched executives increase their own pay while struggling to attract and retain workers to frontline jobs. She said some of her co-workers now work multiple nursing-home jobs to make ends meet for their families.
“When that wage goes up, that’s them spending more time with their families because they don’t have to work two or three jobs,” she said. “We give everything that we’ve got, and it never trickles down to us – it just stops with the higher-ups.”
“I make $17.68 an hour, and I’ve been working at this facility for seven years,” Roseville Estates laundry worker Teresa Brees, an SEIU member, said. “That’s all I make. Thankfully, the Standards Board, (when the wage floor begins phasing in) will see that at least I get above $19. That’s really important to me.”
In addition to the wage floor, the new board also mandated that nursing home workers receive time-and-a-half pay on all 11 state holidays – a move T.J. Hart, who works in food service at a non-union nursing home, described as a matter of fairness.
“Long-term-care facilities are 24-7 facilities, and it’s not management who’s working on holidays,” Hart said. “We are the ones that are working on holidays and taking time away from our families and friends while we’re serving our residents.”
Higgins, an SEIU member, said she has struggled with the question of whether to leave her current position for a higher-paying job – a choice she hopes she won’t have to make now, with the new standards poised to take effect.
“Some of my best friends are residents at that nursing home,” Higgins said. “I’m there every day. I know I look forward to seeing them, and they look forward to seeing me. I want to stay right there with the family that I have been with.”
The nine-member board approved the higher standards with three worker representatives and three government representatives voting yes, while three employer representatives abstained.
Rasha Ahmad Sharif, a vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and leader of its long-term care sector, called the board’s vote a “revolutionary moment seeing nursing home workers – union and non-union alike – standing up and demanding change.”
“We stand by and support this board and are excited for these new standards,” Ahmad Sharif added. “We still have a lot of work to do, but this is an amazing step forward for nursing home workers and residents all across Minnesota.”
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor