Nursing Home Workers

In Historic Month, SEIU-ULTCW Organizes 347 New Nursing Home Employees

From May 23 to June 20, 347 employees at five different nursing homes throughout the state voted overwhelmingly in favor of uniting with SEIU Healthcare United Long-Term Care Workers' Union.

The string of victories - including winning three elections in one week - is the biggest organizing victory in SEIU's history of unionizing nursing homes through National Labor Relations Board elections.

In coming weeks, workers in all five facilities will sit down with management to negotiate real raises and benefits, better staffing and supplies, and set up guidelines to ensure workers have a true voice on the job.

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Grand Blanc Bosses Bust Up Workers’ Pool Party

Chris Benson, a CNA at Grand Blanc Rehab and Nursing, was looking forward to a relaxing pool party and bbq with his co-workers last Friday. Grand Blanc Pool

But bosses from Grand Blanc had other ideas.

They decided to take their fight against workers winning a fair contract outside of the workplace, and invade the workers’ private lives.

The bosses showed up at the apartment complex the morning of the party and falsely told the manager that a big, political rally was being planned at the complex.

This caused the apartment complex to deny the workers’ access to the pool and stop their party.

Despite all of this, workers still gathered together for a day of fun and fellowship and made the most of the afternoon.

But this does make the question obvious, why is Grand Blanc so desperate to keep workers from uniting and have they finally gone too far?

Manor Care hits snag

THREE WEEKS after the sale of Toledo’s Manor Care Inc. was to have closed, the deal has been stalled by state regulators nationwide, and Wall Street is getting jittery.

In a sign that investors are worried that the $6.3 billion deal might not be completed, shares of the nation’s largest nursing home operator were trading last week nearly 9 percent below the $67 price at which they will be redeemed if the sale goes through.

“It’s worrisome,” said one analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The longer this thing takes to close, the more bad news may pop up.”

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Legislators to discuss nursing home sale

November 8, 2007

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

Federal and state legislators Wednesday announced plans to conduct hearings into the pending sale of 28 Michigan nursing homes to a private-equity firm.

The Carlyle Group plans to spend $6.3 billion to buy a network of 500 nursing homes, assisted living and rehabilitation facilities and hospice and home care programs owned by Manor Care Inc. of Toledo. Manor Care has 60,000 employees nationwide. In metro Detroit, many of the facilities operate under the name Heartland.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, and state Rep. Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee, said Wednesday they have serious concerns about the sale. "Many homes already have questionable standards," Angerer said, in a media telephone briefing. "Problems ... won't be solved when they transfer ownership to private-equity firms." In the past two days, Angerer asked the Michigan Department of Community Health to hold up approval of the license transfer.

The department has granted approval to transfer certificate of need applications to the Carlyle Group, but is aware of the legislators' concerns and will carefully review the transfer of the 28 licenses, said T.J. Bucholz, spokesman for the department. Any uncorrected violations could affect the decision, he said.

Rick Rump, a spokesman for Manor Care, said the Michigan facilities have fewer deficiencies than the state's average. For a 12-month period ending September 30, the 28 facilities had 7.4 deficiencies, compared with a state average of 8.7.

Under Pressure, Carlyle Issues Patient Promise

The Carlyle Group, under siege for weeks by a labor union critical of its $6.3 billion purchase of Manor Care nursing homes, has taken the rare step of putting in writing its promise to provide adequate staffing and resources to the chain.

The District-based buyout giant said it has sent to state regulators across the nation a "patients first" pledge, vowing to provide quality services to patients and proper education and training to staffers who care for them. The private-equity firm also said it will make the investments necessary to "ensure Manor Care's facilities continue to be .

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Nursing Home Workers Rally Against ManorCare Buyout

10-17-07

More than 200 caregivers, including over 40 from SEIU Healthcare Michigan, senior advocates, and community leaders rallied outside the Toledo, OH, headquarters of nursing home chain HCR Manor Care yesterday, as shareholders inside voted to approve $6.3 billion buyout of Manor Care by private equity firm The Carlyle Group. Today, a group of more than two dozen Manor Care workers and their supporters will travel by caravan through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to the Carlyle Group’s headquarters in Washington, DC where they will hold demonstrations and lobby members of Congress.

Detroit Free Press

Carlyle to pay $6.3 billion for nursing homes

October 10, 2007

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT

FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

In one of the largest purchases in the industry, the Carlyle Group, a private investment group, plans to spend $6.3 billion next week to buy a nursing home chain that has 31 Michigan facilities.

Manor Care Inc. of Toledo has scheduled a stockholders vote at 2 p.m. Oct. 17 on the sale of its network of 500 nursing home, assisted living and rehabilitation facilities. In metro Detroit, many of the facilities operate under the names Heartland. They provide nursing home, assisted living and rehabilitation services to more than 3,000 Michigan residents, most at facilities with the company's Heartland Health Care Center name. Manor Care has 60,000 employees nationwide.

The Service Employees International Union, representing nursing home staffers, including 250 employees at four Manor Care facilities in Michigan, asked the Michigan Department of Community Health to carefully review all aspects of the sale, according to Alex Shulman, union spokesman.

Today, representatives of the union, Citizens for Better Care in Michigan, a nursing home monitoring agency, two disability coalitions and several legislators scheduled a media briefing at Lansing's state Capitol to denounce the sale.
Shulman said Tuesday that care at Manor Care's facilities will erode if they are sold to a company with little background in health care. The union's complaints are at www.carlylefixmanorcarenow.org.

The Carlyle Group did not return a call Tuesday.

At Many Homes, More Profit and Less Nursing

The New York Times

Habana Health Care Center, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Fla., was struggling when a group of large private investment firms purchased it and 48 other nursing homes in 2002.

The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes.

Residents fared less well. Over three years, 15 at Habana died from what their families contend was negligent care in lawsuits filed in state court. Regulators repeatedly warned the home that staff levels were below mandatory minimums. When regulators visited, they found malfunctioning fire doors, unhygienic kitchens and a resident using a leg brace that was broken.

Read the full article here.