A federal court has granted an expedited appeal to five Connecticut nursing homes managed by HealthBridge Management L.L.C. in the facilities”™ lawsuit against 600 union workers who have been on strike since July.
The ruling follows a Feb. 24 bankruptcy filing by the five homes in Newington, Milford, Danbury, Stamford and Westport, which are seeking relief from existing collective bargaining agreements that they say are contributing to losses of about $1.3 million a month.
“The centers have a bright future if they can operate under labor agreements that reflect today”™s financial realities, but the fact is the centers will not survive unless we have relief from the crushing burden of unsustainable labor costs, especially the spiraling costs of pension and health care obligations,” HealthBridge spokeswoman Lisa Crutchfield said in a Feb. 25 statement.
So far, however, HealthBridge and the five health care facilities have been unsuccessful in overturning a Dec. 11 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny of the District of Connecticut, who sided with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the union in requiring HealthBridge to bring back the striking employees and to restore benefits to about 75 union employees who worked through the strike.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn Chatigny”™s ruling, and the striking employees, who are represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199, were scheduled to return to work March 3.
David Pickus, president of SEIU 1199, described the bankruptcy filings as “the latest in a long string of actions by HealthBridge aimed at avoiding their legal obligations to more than 600 hardworking nursing home caregivers across Connecticut.”
HealthBridge, based in Parsippany, N.J., has disputed Pickus”™ statements. It says the facilities it manages spend 225 percent more on pension benefits per resident-day than the statewide average for nursing homes, and that its daily benefit costs were 24 percent higher than other union nursing home facilities in Connecticut.
“We continue to firmly believe that the NLRB”™s contention that the centers”™ implementation of their ”˜last, best and final”™ offers in June 2012 after reaching impasse were unfair labor practices is unwarranted and without merit,” Crutchfield said, contending that the declaration of an impasse was appropriate given the nearly 18 months of failed negotiations.
Crutchfield said the five nursing homes that declared bankruptcy would continue to operate as usual with no service interruptions, and said HealthBridge is “pleased” with the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to expedite arguments in HealthBridge”™s appeal of Chatigny”™s ruling.
The labor dispute came to a head last June, when, after 18 months of negotiations over a new contract, the five nursing homes implemented their “last, best and final” offer that involved the termination of the union employees”™ pensions and shifted health care premium costs to the workers, while also raising wages by 2.2 percent.
In response, the SEIU workers went on strike while HealthBridge hired replacement workers to staff the facilities, which include the Long Ridge of Stamford, Newington Health Care Center, Westport Health Care Center, West River Health Care Center and Danbury Health Care Center.
The NLRB responded within a week of the strike, filing charges against HealthBridge and the centers that the contract changes forced on union employees were illegal.
The five homes, which provide long-term nursing care and short-term rehabilitation services for the elderly, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
The filings do not include other non-union facilities in Connecticut that are managed by HealthBridge.
Opening briefs in the appeal before the Second Circuit are due March 15, and the appeal is to be heard the week of April 29.
