WHEREAS:
AFSCME represents more than 15,000 nursing home workers and as potential purchasers of nursing home services, AFSCME retirees and members are justifiably concerned with quality of nursing care; and
WHEREAS:
The Reagan Administration, together with the profit-making nursing home industry, has launched a full-scale attack against the federal government's patient safety and staffing regulations for nursing homes. Moreover, federal deficit reduction schemes designed to severely cut Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement have seriously undermined the ability of states to deliver services for their elderly populations, and
WHEREAS:
The degree of economic concentration in the nursing home industry has increased dramatically in the past decade and non-union, for-profit corporations form the nucleus of that concentration; and
WHEREAS:
Working hours in nursing homes are notoriously long, pay is low, and worker turnover is high. For-profit operation too often results in dehumanizing conditions for both patients and workers. Only through unionization are improvements in working conditions and quality care achieved; and
WHEREAS:
Public nursing homes, which care for the more seriously ill or disabled patients and have fewer private-paying patients, have been especially hard hit, and
WHEREAS:
Many non-union nursing homes threaten the jobs of over 200,000 members in state, local and non-profit institutions, since these nursing homes take state patients and provide inferior services to those patients. A vast number of nursing home residents are inappropriately placed individuals who require treatment for specific mental disabilities.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME continue to devote appropriate resources to fight nursing home budget cuts, deregulation, layoffs, wage cuts, takeovers and other threats to quality services; and
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME work to implement recommendations, set forth in the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine's recently released study, "Improving the Quality of Care in Nursing Homes," which benefit both patients and workers; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME continue to work actively to upgrade nursing home wage and benefit levels, career opportunities and quality services; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME and groups like the National Council of Senior Citizens and the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform work to achieve mutual objectives; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That a concerted effort be made to organize the unorganized nursing home facilities that will then enable us to ensure that quality care will be delivered to the elderly of our country.
SUBMITTED BY:
Donna Gaethke, Delegate
Local 1925, Council 40
Walworth County, Wisconsin