ELLSWORTH, Wis — Ellsworth Care Center has begun firing and replacing workers who are in their fourth week of a strike over the nursing home’s attempts to break their union. þþThe workers, members of UFCW Local 789, voted 35-0 to strike on August 3. Negotiations are scheduled to resume Wednesday, “but I’m not optimistic,” said Local 789 president Don Seaquist. “Right now, they could care less about the community and about the existing workforce,” he said.þþRice Management Corp., based in Appleton, purchased the nursing home last December. þþRice operates 11 other homes in Wisconsin and, when new managers took over, Seaquist said, “They told workers ‘None of our homes are organized and this one won’t be either’.”þþIn fact, Seaquist said, Rice has “effectively eliminated representation” by different unions at three other facilities. In Ellsworth, Rice recognized Local 789 as the workers’ collective bargaining agent, but refused to honor the existing contract, which ran until next year.þþFurther, Rice declared registered nurses and licensed practical nurses supervisors, at least temporarily depriving them of union representation. The remaining workers – who work as nursing assistants, dietary aides, and in housekeeping and laundry – have refused to accept a new contract that would eliminate union security language and replace it with an open shop.þþSeaquist called Rice’s behavior a textbook example of what’s wrong with current labor law “and why we need to be politically involved.”þþLocal 789 has filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against Rice, and is seeking a unit clarification ruling from the National Labor Relations Board to preserve the bargaining rights of RNs and LPNs, Seaquist said. þþMeanwhile, Rice has begun terminating current employees and replacing them – which is legal unless the NLRB rules that the strike is in response to unfair labor practices.þþHowever, Rice is having trouble hiring enough replacements in and around the town of 3,000, he said, which is about 15 miles east of Hastings. “We’ve had great community support.… Other than a few scabs on the first day, no one has gone back to work. We’ve even had LPNs quit because they didn’t want to cross the picket line.”þþBusinesses and elected officials are providing strikers with food certificates, discounts and other support, he said.þþ
Source: WorkdayMinnesota.org
