Lincoln City Rehab Joins 503

Lincoln City Rehab Joins 503

Nursing home workers vote, join together to improve services for clients
Feb 10, 2006 - On Jan 4, Nurses' Assistants, Medication Aides, Restorative Aides, Dietary, Housekeeping, Maintenance and Laundry staff at Lincoln City Rehabilitation Center voted to join our union. Despite intense pressure from their bosses, the workers held strong and won the election.

Lincoln City Rehab belongs to the Pinnacle Nursing Home chain. Pinnacle mounted an intense anti-union fight, including firing a union activist. The votes were finally counted on January 12 and workers supported the union 15 to 13. An Unfair Labor Practice complaint has been filed against Pinnacle for the firing of the worker in retaliation for union activities.

According to Becca Thompson, a Medication Aide at the nursing home, "By joining into a union, we can work more effectively for more staff to give higher standards of care. We really become the family of our residents and they rely on us."
Becca has worked at Lincoln City Rehab for the past three years. The workers are extremely excited about working with 503 on passing the Safe Staffing ballot measure and bargaining their first contract.

Linda Cave, a Restorative Aide said, "In the eight years I've worked here, I've seen staffing become a bigger and bigger issue. It makes it hard to stay here. People lose heart when they can't give the level of care they feel they should."

The first bargaining date is Feb 17, and we expect resistance from Pinnacle on just cause for discipline, union rights, binding arbitration, better benefits, and higher wages .

Lincoln City Rehab is the twentieth nursing home to vote to go union in Oregon. The workers in 19 of these homes voted to become part of SEIU Local 503.

Congratulations to the newest members of our nursing home union!