Gov. Ned Lamont reached a deal between the state’s largest health care workers’ union and the nursing home industry late Thursday afternoon that would avert a strike Friday at 26 facilities.
The agreement came two hours after the administration sweetened its offer to fund the industry in the next state budget.
“We have a basic agreement, which is a four-year deal, to put front-and-center our nurses who have been there at the nursing homes taking care of our seniors through thick and thin over the last 14 months,” Lamont said at 4:20 p.m. as he opened his televised briefing on the state’s coronavirus containment efforts. “And they will be getting a significant raise over the next four years.”
Now that the state has committed its resources to the industry — the toughest hurdle to clear —the various nursing home operators still must finalize contract details on wages and benefits with their respective workers and with SEIU District 1199 New England.
But the union wrote in a statement Thursday evening that one of the major chains involved, the iCare Health Network, already has agreed to a key demand, to elevate pay for certified nurses aides to a minimum of $20 per hour by 2023, along with enhanced health and retirement benefits.
“I want to acknowledge and thank the leadership of Gov. Ned Lamont, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, Chief of Staff Paul Mounds and OPM [Office of Policy and Management] Secretary Melissa McCaw in making it possible to meet the goal of a Long-Term Care Workers’ Bill of Rights for nursing home caregivers,” union President Rob Baril wrote in a statement.
The head of the state’s largest association of nursing home operators also praised all parties for working to avoid a staffing crisis.
“Nursing home residents, their families, caregivers and the operators all can rest easier tonight with this critically important breakthrough achievement” Matthew Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, said.
Technically, the threat of a strike isn’t removed entirely. The union pushed the strike deadline for 26 facilities from Friday until June 7. Another 13 homes where workers don’t have new contracts still face a May 28 deadline. And at least 12 other facilities have caregivers working under expired deals. But the industry and union were optimistic Thursday that all strike notices and threats would be cancelled in the near future once final labor agreements, based on the enhanced level of state funding, have been formally drafted and signed.
Lamont achieved a breakthrough Thursday, after nearly a month of mounting tensions, when he sweetened his offer for additional state funding for nursing home care.
Though the labor contracts are between nursing homes and the workers, the state is a key player in these talks. That’s because nursing homes receive the bulk of their revenue from the state in exchange for serving residents and patients covered by Medicaid.
The governor specifically pitched a 4.5% Medicaid rate increase for wages and health benefits in the coming fiscal year and a 6.2% hike in 2022-23. He originally proposed 4.5% for each of the next two fiscal years. These rate-based payments provide the resources homes will use to compensate workers.
The state’s final offer also includes:
- A temporary, 10% increase in facilities’ Medicaid rates worth $86 million between this July and March 2022. This is in additional to the ongoing 4.5% and 6.2% increases scheduled for the next two fiscal years. These one-time dollars would go largely to mitigate lost revenues and added expenses homes have faced.
- And $13 million for enhanced training and staff development.
At first glance, the administration’s revised offer Thursday appears smaller than what the governor was offering as late as Tuesday. In fact, the added cost in the next two-year, state budget cycle was $280.3 million under the first offer, and $267.2 million under the final one.
But the big advantage the revised offer holds for nursing homes and its workers is that it includes the higher, 6.2% Medicaid rate for facilities in 2023.
The higher rate would remain in place even after the next two-year budget expires, unless the legislature specifically votes to lower it, which traditionally does not happen.
That gives the industry greater security that enhanced state funding — which is needed to support the wage hikes and benefit increases — would continue well into the future.
Looney, the Senate’s highest-ranking leader, called the improved pay and benefits for nursing home workers “long overdue.
“They were on the front lines for our most vulnerable residents during the worst pandemic in a century and we rightfully lauded them as heroes. Now, with this agreement, we are putting money behind those words and financially supporting them for their critical work.”
Lamont’s original offer had included more one-time state funding to support hazardous pay bonuses and a stipend that workers could put toward their retirement. That was taken out of the final offer. And an original proposal to dedicate $13.5 million in state funds for worker training and development was reduced to $13 million.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on the nursing home industry and the frontline workers that served and worked during a difficult time,” Melissa McCaw, the governor’s budget director, wrote in a letter to the nursing home industry. “We recognize the impact that the pandemic has had on workers, residents and on the industry as a whole.”
The deal means 2,800 unionized caregivers will remain on the job Friday, and another 1,200 scheduled to strike on May 28 also will avoid a work stoppage.
