Hudson Valley Nursing Home Workers Join in Song And Prayer To Protect Their Pensions
1199SEIU healthcare workers and their families gathered at the Wartburg Adult Care Community in Mount Vernon in New York’s Westchester County on March 6 for a candlelight prayer vigil to save and protect their pensions. From the top of the hill on Bradley Street, you could hear a group of sweet voices singing psalms. The caregivers at Wartburg Adult Community in Mount Vernon, Westchester County, Lutheran Care Center in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County and Good Samaritan Nursing and Adult Home in Delmar, Albany County are all employed by a common employer, Wartburg Lutheran Services. They were joined by many supportive 1199SEIU members from Westchester area institutions including Mount Vernon Hospital and Northern Westchester Hospital. When the financial markets went into crisis last year, 400 other 1199SEIU employers took the necessary steps to ensure the value of the 1199SEIU Pension and Health Fund by opening and renegotiating contracts. But Wartburg Lutheran Services has refused to do so.
The workers say that Wartburg Lutheran Services is putting their pensions at risk and, while they do their jobs with dignity, compassion and high standards of professionalism, their employer is not doing its part. Upholding these high standards requires offering caregivers security through decent wages and benefits.
Eileen Curtin, a licensed practical nurse (LPN) at the Wartburg Adult Community, has been on the job for more than two decades. “I love my job,” she says. “I need to have peace of mind today, so I can give my patients the daily care they need and at the same time know I will eventually be able to retire with the respect and dignity I’ve earned after working here for 22 years.
“It’s hard to understand what Wartburg Lutheran is thinking when it comes to financial planning. If the money isn’t added to the Fund now, by the time our current contract expires in 2011, the amount of money needed to maintain the pension will significantly increase. And, if a new contract is not negotiated within six months of the 2011 expiration, the Pension Fund will default under the Federal Pension Protection Act. Default would mean less money in the pension fund as well as earnings at a lower rate.“
The opening prayer at the candlelight vigil was delivered by Bishop Howard Ricketts of the Mount Calvary Pentecostal Healing Temple in the Bronx. Reverend Bethea Wright of the Union Grove Baptist Church in the Bronx closed the program.