Laurel Hill workers decide to strike

WINSTED — Dozens of workers were expected to go on strike this week at Laurel Hill Healthcare and other nursing homes throughout the state after union representatives and the nursing home’s management company failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, informed Spectrum Healthcare, the Vernon-based agency that runs the 108 East Lake St. facility, that union members employed by the company would strike and picket beginning Thursday, April 15, at 6 a.m. if no collective bargaining agreement was reached by that time.

Some 400 employees in all could go on strike at four of Spectrum’s six nursing homes in Connecticut — Birmingham Health Center in Derby, Hilltop Health Center in Ansonia, Park Place in Hartford and Laurel Hill.

The union, whose contract with Spectrum expired in March 2009, has 62 members employed at Laurel Hill.

Although federal mediators were called in earlier this week to help bridge the gap between the company and the union, District 1199 Communications Director Deborah Chernoff told The Journal Wednesday morning, “We did not make any real progress at the table� during Tuesday’s negotiations in Ansonia.

She said that Spectrum refused to set any new time slots for additional negotiations before the strike deadline.

“It is our expectation that we will be on the picket line tomorrow morning,� Chernoff said Wednesday.

In response to the threat of a strike, Spectrum has been running help wanted advertisements in local daily newspapers. The ads say the company seeks to hire “permanent replacement employees to work due to a potential labor dispute.�

Laurel Hill administrators did not respond to calls from The Journal requesting comment on the possibility of a strike.

In a letter posted on its Web site April 5, however, Spectrum stated that it is “currently negotiating in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable labor agreement� with the union and that the company is “fully prepared to continue to provide uninterrupted quality, safe care to all of our patients.�

The union said it has reached recent agreements with several other nursing home companies that include a 2.5-percent wage increase in the second year and “improvements in the cost of health insurance coverage.�

Thompson added that, so far, Spectrum has refused “to agree to similar terms.�

She said that the union also has concerns regarding health and safety issues at the sites. The union has begun a television advertising campaign that highlights those concerns.

The Journal will post an update to this story on its Web site Friday, April 16.