HARTFORD, Conn. — As more than 3,000 nursing home employees in Connecticut threaten to strike in just four days, a new report on their working conditions was released Monday.
The report comes from the Yale Law School Clinic and is titled “‘We Were Abandoned’: How Connecticut Failed Nursing Home Workers and Residents During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” It is based on a study of Department of Public Health documents and worker interviews.
The report, also conducted by SEIU District 1199NE, describes unsafe conditions, understaffed facilities, inadequate compensation, and a lack of state oversight.
You can read the report here:
"I go into work in the morning so afraid because I don't know which one of my residents that I take care of is going to die. I have to actually go in and sit there with residents while they just die," said nursing assistant Nedra Williams
Williams says that at the start of the pandemic last year, the lack of PPE had led her and others to wear garbage bags as a backup.
The report comes just says before a potential strike at 33 facilities across the state.
“We are struggling. We are working so understaffed. We are so burnt out. We are so tired. And we just want the best for the residents,” said Tanya Beckford, a certified nursing assistant, and 1199NE member.
The group behind the report says it lays out a set of policy recommendations for ensuring safe staffing, fair compensation and quality patient care in Connecticut.
“This is a workforce that is overwhelmingly black and brown women. They have been stretched far beyond their breaking point,” said Rob Baril, president of 1199NE. “They want to be treated with the respect and dignity that all human beings deserve. That is why they are asking for livable wages and benefits and a Long Term Care Workers Bill of Rights.”
Thousands of workers are preparing to strike based on what they say are unsafe conditions, understaffed facilities, inadequate compensation, and lack of state oversight.
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