Nearly 700 nurses, mostly from the Chicago area, quit their jobs



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CHICAGO – Nearly 700 nursing home workers quit their jobs Monday at 11 Infinity healthcare management facilities, primarily in the Chicago area, saying they won’t return until the company offers them higher wages and safer working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic that is hitting nursing homes hard.

NOT ONLY COVIDATED: NURSING HOME NEGLECT IN SHADOWS DEATHS

Striking workers and representatives from their union, SEIU Healthcare Illinois, stood outside nursing homes in Cicero, Maywood and the Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago while recounting a list of grievances against Infinity.

Messages emailed to the company requesting comment on Monday were returned as undeliverable, while phone calls to the company’s offices in Hillside, Ill. Could not reach any representative of the company.

Workers demand at least $ 15 an hour, a risk premium for all employees, and a sufficient supply of personal protective equipment.

Jackie Abulebdeh, who works at Southpoint Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, said she only gets one mask for a day’s work.

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Striking workers said Infinity halted employee pay in the event of a pandemic at the end of July and was paying workers much lower base wages than other Chicago-area nursing homes, although it received $ 12.7 million in COVID-19 funding through the federal coronavirus rescue program.

The workers said they had been without a contract since June. Their strike affects nine nursing homes in the Chicago area, WLS-TV reported. These include the City View Multicare center in Cicero, where employee Janice Hill said she made $ 14.10 an hour after 12 years and looked after 33 residents on her night shift.

“The poverty wages that nursing home workers are paid creates a downward spiral where no one wants to work in a nursing home, which creates a staffing crisis and forces good workers to leave,” Hill said. at a press conference outside City View.

Shaba Andrich of SEIU Healthcare Illinois said the striking workers want danger “not just for a few people but for everyone”.

“We have had deceased members who are laundry workers, dietitians; the limbs die. I’m not just talking about CNAs, not just people who deal directly with COVID patients, ”said Andrich.

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