At Miners Memorial, Manor staffers voice concerns over staffing, pay, benefits

SHENANDOAH – About a dozen Shenandoah Manor staffers and those whose family members they care for raised concerns over staffing levels at the East Washington Street nursing home, along with pay and benefits.

Priority Healthcare Group bought the facility last year, and shortly after, its employees joined the SEIU Healthcare union.

Since the purchase, employees say the nursing center has experienced staffing shortages, exacerbated by what they call inadequate health insurance coverage and wages.

About 16 staffers and relatives of residents gathered at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Miners Memorial at midday Thursday to voice their concerns.

Marie Gunderman, a personal care assistant at the Manor since the 1990s, said they have had to rely more and more on temporary agency nurses.

“It’s not fair to the residents, every day, to have a different face that they don’t recognize,” Gunderman said. “We can change this for the better. We can retain the caregivers who have dedicated over 20 years to this facility and we can recruit more staff.”

Gunderman said the health insurance plans offered at the Manor include “huge out-of-pocket expenses.”

“One coworker told us the other week that she has to pay $1,500 for an ultrasound out-of-pocket,” Gunderman said. “Priority’s insurance said that they would only cover $258.”

Joseph Honus, an LPN at the Manor for 23 years, says he loves his residents and described them as part of his family and he’s known many of them within the community.

“Some of them don’t have anyone that comes to see them,” Honus said. “I am their family.”

“Today, I am here to tell our community that we have a problem at the nursing home,” Honus added. “Staffing is horrible. The ratios are 1-to-25 on night shift, yet most of the time, I’ll have 30 to 35 residents at a time. It’s 1-to-12 for nursing aide. That never happens.”

“Every day, it’s piecemeal,” Honus said. “You don’t know who’s coming, who’s going to be there. When your shift is over, you don’t know if you’re going to have relief.”

Honus said that, one night, he was the only second shift staffer in the entire building.

“They don’t seem to care,” Honus said of Priority. “They bought the company last year and staffing has gotten worse since. Ratios mean something to me. Better staffing means better care for the residents.”

He said some longtime staff members have left because of the healthcare costs.

“We are the people who take care of our loved ones like they are our own family,” Gunderman said. “I’m Shenandoah born-and-raised, most of us are. We know our residents very well.”

She raised concerns that taxpayer funds provided to the Manor aren’t used for patient care.

“This town has higher rates of cancer, diabetes, and death by heart disease than the state and the country,” Gunderman said. “We have more people 65 and older than any other age group. The money Priority receives from the state should go directly towards staffing.”

SEIU says Priority Healthcare receives $25.4 Million in funding each year from the state. The Manor specifically received a $234,000 federal grant in March.

“Priority has an opportunity right now to invest in staff recruitment and retention in our first union contract,” Gunderman said. “We are calling for fair wages for all and quality health insurance with affordable costs for people who spend every day caring for our loved ones.”

“It’s fitting that we’re speaking out for our community, our residents, and ourselves at this Miners Memorial,” Gunderman said. “Just like the miners, we’re sending a message that companies like Priority need to provide for the people that work every day.

Andy Ulicny, a local historian and Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society president, said his mother resides at the Manor and mentioned the borough’s history in labor history.

“Our grandparents, or parents on these bricks fought for what they had to get,” Ulicny said. “John Siney started the labor movement, a Saint Clair native. John Mitchell paraded through the town to all sorts of applause.

“We had a 1902 coal strike here that turned the nation around,” Ulicny added. “Teddy Roosevelt had to resolve it. So we fought in the past for fairness for labor, and now somehow, all of America has become anti-labor. I don’t understand it.”

“We need to correct that, and we need to look at smaller unions, smaller people saying ‘I can’t live on these wages, I can’t live without medical insurance,'” Ulicny said. “The little guy is being stomped on and it’s just not fair.”

Colleen Moyer’s mother also resides at the Manor.

“It was a very hard decision to make,” Moyer said. “But I know I made the right one. Her staff is amazing.”

“They love everybody,” Moyer added. “The treatment that they can give, though, is minimal because they don’t have the help. They’re so overworked, so overwhelmed.”

She expressed gratitude for the attention and assistance her mother has received at the Manor.

SEIU said they have a bargaining session in September to negotiate a contract.

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