Workers at Providence nursing home begin 3-day strike

PROVIDENCE -- Workers at Bannister Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing began a three-day strike Friday morning after contract talks broke down over wages and staffing issues.

The union for the 100 workers says it has pushed for "safe staffing standards" that included 4.1 hours of direct care for residents, along with wage hikes, "affordable healthcare and training opportunities."

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In a statement, the union said, "Despite healthy profits and large windfalls of federal funding, Bannister's New York-based management decided to disregard the urgent needs of health care heroes who have shown up everyday in a deadly pandemic to provide high quality compassionate care."

Jeffrey Jacomowitz, a spokesman for Centers of Health Care, which owns Bannister Center, said like other long-term facilities, the center has been under "tremendous regulatory and financial stress" since the onset of the pandemic.

Jacomowitz said the company offered employees a short-term contract with an immediate bump in pay, a reduction in healthcare premiums and a COVID-19 hazard pay bonus.

"The goal," he said, "was to ensure that our employees receive something now and then reopen negotiations in 12 months when we are hopefully through this pandemic."

The company said it has brought in temporary nurses and other healthcare workers to care for residents during the strike.

Workers have planned a noon rally outside the Dodge Street nursing center.

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