|
SACRAMENTO (March 31, 2007)-Congressman Jerry McNerney, state Senator Darrell Steinberg and several other elected officials joined more than a hundred nursing home caregivers at a rally in Sacramento on César Chávez Day to show support for workers' organizing rights by signing a letter that urges nursing home operator SnF Management, parent company of the Windsor chain, not to interfere with employees' efforts to organize a union.
"We want you to organize," said Rep. McNerney, who unseated Republican Richard Pombo in a come-from-behind victory last November that was strongly supported by UHW caregivers. "We insist that people in this country have the right to organize, and we just proved that several weeks ago with the approval of the Employee Free Choice Act."
Sen. Steinberg promised to stand behind caregivers' unionizing effort.
"You care for people during the most difficult and vulnerable times of their lives," Steinberg said. "You deserve not only dignity but respect and admiration for the work you do. Frontline caregivers like yourselves need to be able to form a union."
The caregivers work at homes that the Helios Corporation recently sold to Windsor, which operates more than a dozen convalescent facilities in the state. Though Windsor recently agreed to recognize the union at four of the former Helios homes, the company has not yet recognized the right of non-union workers at their other homes to organize.
"Having a union at our facility means caregivers are able to be involved in improving resident care," said Eleanor Smithey, who works at The Ridge Rehabilitation Center in Salinas. "We want to make sure that healthy relationship continues when the new company takes over. We want caregivers to be able to stay working at our facility without having to worry about looking for a better job in order to provide for their families."
The non-union Windsor homes previously owned by Helios include: El Camino Care Center in Carmichael; Chico Care Center and Chico Creek Care and Rehabilitation Center; Elk Grove Care and Rehabilitation Center; Rosewood Care Center in Pleasant Hill; Redding Care Center; and Elmhaven Care Center and Hampton Care Center in Stockton. The company has also purchased four unionized Helios homes: Country Drive Care Center in Fremont; Monterey Care Center; and Skyline Care Center and The Ridge Care and Rehabilitation Center in Salinas.
Other elected leaders who joined to show their support and signed a pledge endorsing the organizing effort included Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento); Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson; Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada; Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty; and Grantland Johnson, former secretary of California's Department of Health Services.
Community allies at the event included Gary Passmore of the Congress of California Seniors; Joan Lee and Arnie Godmitz of the Grey Panthers; Bill Powers of the California Alliance for Retired Americans; Frances Gracechild from Resources for Independent Living; and Ethan Evans of the Sacramento Housing Alliance.
Later that morning, UHW caregivers joined the César Chávez Day march and rally through the streets of Sacramento, adding a generous supply of purple to the large crowd. The daylong event celebrated the birth of the famed labor leader who founded the United Farm Workers. | 
