The Legislature has approved and Gov. Charlie Baker has signed off on a $400 million plan to construct a new Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. However, some of the same issues that contributed to the COVID-19 disaster there, which killed over 76 veterans, still must be resolved. “The building was not to blame for the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Kwesi Ablordeppey, Local 888’s chapter president. Instead he points to a lack of staff and a a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for the workers to protect them from the disease. Ultimately, it was “a failure of leadership” that was to blame, said Ablordeppey.
In fact, a recent report, issued by a legislative committee investigating the outbreak, faulted “a crisis of leadership.”
Union members at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home organized a March 30 candlelight vigil to remember the tragedy that had struck the residential facility one year before. Even now, however, Holyoke Home has continued to find it difficult to hire new workers and properly staff up — and so relies heavily on staffing agencies. This costs more than paying existing or newly hired staff.
Ablordeppey, a CNA, has worked at the Holyoke Home for 21 years. “When I got here, the salary of a CNA was higher than on the outside.” Now people outside the facility are making more.
“The state can get a brand new facility, and that won’t fix the problem of short staffing,” he said. Before the Holyoke outbreak, Local 888 had been calling for years for big changes at the long-term care facility. For example, in August 2018, members wore buttons and circulated petitions protesting forced overtime and understaffing. Local 888 represents CNAs and LPNs at the facility.
When Ablordeppey was first hired, the pay was competitive. It’s not anymore, he said. “They’re not paying enough.”
To address the issue, he said, the state has hired new workers in at rates further up on the 12-step pay scale, which is based on seniority. It’s not fair to existing workers, and “people are still not staying,” he said.
Local 888 is bargaining with the state to upgrade the pay rates overall. But the state has not agreed to do that. Nonetheless, Ablordeppey said that a recent negotiation session offered hope that things were moving in the right direction.
For more on the Holyoke Home, see http://www.seiu888.org/2020/11/16/holyoke-homes-ex-honchos-in-spotlight/.