HARTFORD — Outside the House chamber at the Capitol Monday, union workers were savoring winning the lion’s share of $13 million in the next budget year for nursing home workers’ wages.
“I’m beyond excited. I’m here today to thank them for doing exactly that,” said Sarah Lefevre, a certified nursing assistant at Davis Place, a nursing home in Danielson. Lefevre, who has been a CNA for three years, makes $15.17 an hour and works three days a week.
Davis Place is one of the 27 nursing homes that authorized a strike in April, but then put the notice on hold while union leaders agreed to wait to see what the budget produced.
Lefevre was in a cluster of Service Employees International Union members listening to their ally Rep. Edwin Vargas, D-Hartford.
He told them: “Most of us decided we would put some money in the non-union homes. But the bulk of it should go to the union homes. They’re the ones that have been up here at the Capitol.”
Vargas dismissed nursing home operators’ complaints that the distribution was unfair, as 70 percent of workers are at nonunion homes. “They ought to thank their lucky stars they’re getting anything!”
Republicans were grumbling about the budget language.
“Nursing homes all perform the same service, whether union or nonunion, and I find it very discouraging we’re going to prioritize funding based on unionization,” said Deputy House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford. “I had heard rumors during session that it was a possibility.”
Matthew Barrett, president of the trade association that represents nursing home owners, protested that spending $9 million on unionized workers’ wages and $4 million on all others’ wages is not allowed under Medicaid.
But as the day went on, it became clear that the $9 million / $4 million split is not how the money ultimately will be distributed, according to both the administration and one of the writers of the bill.
The language of the budget implementer says: “Of the amount appropriated for this purpose, no more than $9 million shall go to increases based on reasonable costs mandated by collective bargaining agreements.”
Sen. Beth Bye, co-chairwoman of the budget-writing committee, said that doesn’t mean $9 million is designated for unionized facilities. In fact, she noted, Medicaid bars governments from specifically targeting money to nursing homes based on union representation, or its lack.
Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary of legislative affairs for the Office of Planning and Management, said Monday that the $26 million will “need to be distributed based on a formula that treats all nursing homes equally as required under federal regulations and guidance.”
Jenn Schneider, spokeswoman for SEIU, said that dividing $26 million among all nursing home workers “is not enough money to get people where they need to be.”
Nursing homes will submit data to the Department of Social Services about what they pay certified nursing assistants, dietary aides, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and other non-management employees. They will also submit information about how much they wish to increase wages for these employees, and what that would cost.
The department would calculate allowable costs — no facility is allowed to spend 36 percent more than the typical home for direct care wages and benefits — and, then, distribute money based on what proportion of the nursing home’s beds are paid for with Medicaid dollars. Statewide, the average is 70 percent.
Casa said that if the total allowable cost of raises is more than the appropriation, the Medicaid money would be reduced proportionally for each nursing home.
The size of the raises will be considerably smaller than in 1999, when 6,000 SEIU members used the threat of a strike to win $165 million in Medicaid dollars for wage increases.
Back then, when money was distributed equally between union and nonunion homes, union homes were giving 4.5 percent to 7 percent annual raises to settle contracts.
This time, with $26 million to be shared among roughly 25,000 workers statewide, it’s not clear this amount would even be enough to avoid a strike.
Beth Schmeizl is administrator of Glastonbury Health Care Center, a non-union home that employs about 230.
She said certified nursing assistants, or CNAs, at her facility start at $11.65, and make $13.37 an hour on average. She has 25 percent turnover a year among CNAs. In 2013, the facility gave everyone a 35-cent hourly raise, roughly 2.6 percent for the average CNA. She said of the $26 million: ” I think it’s better than nothing; I do think it has a potential to make a difference.”
Katrina Suggs, a CNA at the Arden House in Hamden, another one of the homes covered by the strike notice, said that after eight years’ of experience, she’s making $15.82 an hour.
She was fine with nonunion homes sharing in the Medicaid wage increases. “I feel like the money should be split evenly. I feel everybody deserves” more pay, she said.
Suggs said she used to work at a nonunion home, and she knows they’re paid less.
Ricardo Silva, a CNA at non-union Manchester Manor, is paid $13.40 an hour after three years in the field. He works at a nonunion home, and he said he didn’t know the legislature was considering adding money to nursing home workers’ pay. His employer was under the impression that union homes would get more of the pie, and he didn’t understand why the legislators would do that. He asked: “Does that mean we have to be there so we can get the same amount as them?”
Mary Ellen Gaudette is administrator of Manchester Manor Health Care Center, which employs about 210.
She said that in recent years, workers have gotten 1 percent raises, or in some years, no raises.
Back in 1999, there was enough money that she gave $1-an-hour raises to everyone. She said the average wage for CNAs at Manchester Manor now is $13, and she has a hard time retaining aides as a result because other homes are paying more. She said she would like to submit a wage increase that would bring all her workers who earn less than $15 an hour to $15, and give a $1 increase to the others.
“We’ve been so far behind the eight ball for so long, that we keep falling farther and farther behind,” she said.
