SEIU nursing house employees strike in Westland
Dozens of employees chanting, “We’re fired up; we will’t take it no extra!” and “No justice; no peace” rallied on Tuesday at 4 Seasons Nursing house in Westland.
The hassle kicked off a sequence of strikes at three metro Detroit nursing properties representing almost 250 employees organized by Service Workers Worldwide Union (SEIU). The labor union plans comparable efforts later this month at different nursing house websites in Royal Oak and Livonia.
“It’s a disgrace that we’re as soon as once more compelled to strike for a contract with aggressive wages and advantages. Our residents deserve secure staffing and the best ranges of high quality care, and that begins with workers retention and recruitment. We’re prepared to face collectively as soon as once more and strike for the contract that we deserve,” mentioned Sirlina Carlos, a restorative Licensed Nurse Assistant for almost 20 years at 4 Seasons Nursing Residence.
Optalis Administration, proprietor of the Westland nursing house, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
All three nursing properties are related with Optalis Administration. In 2020 throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing house employees at 4 Seasons went on strike for 3 days in Westland, successful a contract that raised wages and elevated advantages for members.
Shirley Patton has been a housekeeper at 4 Seasons for greater than 25 years.
“I’m placing for the housekeeping, laundry, and dietary employees being left behind with livable wages. All of us do the identical work, and all of us deserve the identical stage of pay will increase,” mentioned Patton.
The placing employees have been joined by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Hill Harper, a 2024 Democratic Get together candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat.
“You’re our well being care heroes,” Harper, an actor, writer and Display Actors Guild-American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists member. “We admire you being on the entrance strains. It is a second for labor. … Let’s drag a line within the sand proper now. After we combat, we win.”
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) is retiring subsequent yr and several other different Democrats are hoping to succeed her: U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly); Michigan Board of Training President Pamela Pugh; legal professional Zack Burns; businessman Nasser Beydoun; and former State Rep. Leslie Love.
GOP candidates are: former Detroit Police Chief James Craig; former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers; Board of Training member Nikki Snyder; former Berrien County Commissioner Ezra Scott; Alexandria Taylor, an legal professional who has beforehand represented Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo; Sherry O’Donnell, a former 2022 congressional candidate and Michigan state chair for U.S. Time period Limits; conservative businessman J.D. Wilson; and Michael Hoover, who beforehand labored for Dow Chemical Co.
Tlaib additionally confirmed her help for the placing employees.
“It takes braveness for what you all are doing,” Tlaib mentioned. “So that you can stroll out demand higher it takes braveness and you might be inspiring some many different folks to take that step. You do deserve higher. You all deal with probably the most weak amongst us.”
After I requested by the Advance for touch upon the continuing warfare in Israel after the militant group Hamas launched shock assaults and her Sunday assertion, Tlaib declined to remark additional.
“I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives misplaced yesterday, in the present day, and each day,” Tlaib mentioned on Sunday. “I’m decided as ever to combat for a simply future the place everybody can stay in peace, with out worry and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The trail to that future should embody lifting the blockade, ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing situations that may result in resistance.
“The failure to acknowledge the violent actuality of dwelling underneath siege, occupation, and apartheid makes nobody safer,” she mentioned. “No particular person, no youngster wherever ought to need to endure or stay in worry of violence. We can’t ignore the humanity in one another. So long as our nation gives billions in unconditional funding to help the apartheid authorities, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will proceed.”
Some Democratic and Republican state and federal lawmakers have criticized Tlaib’s assertion for not condemning Hamas.
Nonetheless, she was nicely obtained in Westland as she obtained hugs from employees and took pictures with them.
Charlesetta Wilson of SEIU known as Tlaib “our fighter in Washington.”
“A girl who has been on each strike line that I’ve been on over the past 10 years,” Wilson mentioned about Tlaib.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Governor indicators payments geared toward addressing pharmaceuticals, defending susceptible adults 
Whitmer indicators repeal of nation’s solely immunity regulation that shielded drugmakers from authorized legal responsibility 
CDC director in Detroit: ‘COVID continues to be inflicting probably the most variety of hospitalizations’ in Michigan 
Settlement secures further $110 million supporting Michiganders with disabilities 
Whitmer indicators particular felony penalties for assaulting well being care employees into legislation 
When foster care youngsters are intercourse trafficked, some states fail to determine it out 
Susan J. Demas: The season of silence and letting go 
Households of slain college students converse on the sentencing of Oxford Excessive Faculty shooter 
Michigan State College names former UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as president