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Twelve hundred workers at 12 different nursing homes in Buffalo, New York took part in two one-day strikes Tuesday and Wednesday. The workers, who are members of 1199SEIU (Service Employees International Union) United Healthcare Workers East, voted by over 98 percent to authorize strikes earlier this month.

The workers are demanding better pay and increased staffing. Workers have been without a contract since earlier this year, with the last contract of the group expiring April 30.

Many workers make less than $15 an hour, barely above the poverty line for a family. “I'm living paycheck to paycheck,” Donna Gregory told Buffalo Public Radio. “The rent is so high now that a two-bedroom [apartment] is $1,200 [a month]. There's no way I can afford that with the pay they’re giving me, so it affects me horribly.”

Donna, a certified nursing assistant, told the radio station that she has worked at the Garden Gate nursing home in Cheektowaga since 2005, but makes less than $15 an hour. Nursing home workers have always been some of the lowest paid workers, but the impact of inflation, running at nearly 10 percent, is taking a severe toll.

The nursing homes were massively understaffed even before the pandemic. Hundreds of workers caught COVID as the pandemic...

Read Full Story: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/14/wbny-j14.html