CHEYENNE — Employees at Sierra Hills Assisted Living protested Thursday outside the facility after Edgewood Healthcare, which owns Sierra Hills, has refused to budge in negotiations for safer working conditions for employees and residents after more than 10 months of negotiation.
“We did include many things in our contract proposal that we feel will really benefit the residents,” said Taylor Ewig, who has been a CNA at Sierra Hills for around 10 years. “So, we’re here for us, as well as them (the residents). It seems like the company, though, does not look to the residents’ best interest.”
Around 20 employees stood on the corner of Dell Range Boulevard and College Drive outside of Sierra Hills, which is located at 4606 N. College Drive, with signs protesting the way the company has treated its employees and residents. Cars drove by and honked in support, and several community members approached the protesters to learn more about what was going on.
“Edgewood be fair, at least we care,” one picket sign read. Other employees hoisted signs that demanded a new contract and alleged that Edgewood is breaking the law by engaging in unfair labor practices.
The employees participating in the strike began on Christmas Eve and will continue striking until Jan. 2, when they will return to work unconditionally. They are not being paid during the strike, and employees said that Edgewood Healthcare has refused to pay them any holiday pay or benefits they may have accrued while they’re on strike.
Edgewood Healthcare did offer cash bonus incentives to employees who chose not to participate in the strike.
Ewig said most employees who chose not to strike are still very supportive of the union, but could not afford to go nine days without work.
‘Complete chaos’ inside
As the strike is happening at a health care institution, employees are required to notify the employer of the intent to strike no less than 10 days prior to the start date so that the company can hire temporary workers — typically travel nurses and travel CNAs — to fill those positions and continue care for residents.
Sierra Hills employees notified Edgewood Healthcare 12 days prior, but the staff, including CNAs and kitchen staff, said that the company failed to adequately hire enough staff to continue quality care for the residents during the nine days of the strike.
Ewig said that, because of this, the facility is in “complete chaos.”
“We gave them time to bring in travelers. The company opted not to do that, from what I can tell, and they’re just running bare bones, like, skeleton crew. I think there’s one CNA for the entire building,” she said. “… I assume they’re going to try to put that on the union, but that was completely their decision to can we go without (temporary workers). They’re just trying to save money, as they do, I guess.”
There are currently between 70 and 80 residents at the facility and around eight under hospice care.
Ewig and other CNAs participating in the strike said that many of the Sierra Hills residents are supportive of the strike.
The issues began at the facility when Sierra Hills implemented a hospice care service a few years ago, shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life, according to the National Institute on Aging. This care requires specialized training that many of the Sierra Hills CNAs do not have. The company hires hospice nurses who are only on the facility about two hours per week, according to Sierra Hills staff. The rest of that time, the burden of care for the resident falls to the staffed CNAs and RNs.
Because Sierra Hills is an assisted-living facility and not a skilled nursing facility, employees are not allowed to use machinery like mechanical lifts to more easily move residents. Ewig said it is dangerous and difficult for both residents and staff when CNAs must physically lift patients without the assistance of any equipment.
In response to this change in their work environment, Sierra Hills employees unionized in February.
‘Fruitless’ negotiations
Since then, employees say there has been no progress in the bargaining meetings and little wiggle room for negotiations. Edgewood Healthcare meets with the union, organized under the United Steelworkers Union, once a month, sometimes for just 15 minutes.
Due to the lack of progress, the union began this unfair labor practices (ULP) strike, alleging that Edgewood Healthcare is violating the law so egregiously that the employees are not able to negotiate a new contract.
The employees say they are not asking for increased wages or better benefits. They want the company to provide more safety equipment and possibly increase staffing so that the employees can better care for their residents.
Ewig said she hopes the company will provide them with a basic supplies closet filled with things like briefs and wipes, if negotiations go well.
Jennifer Handelman, who has been a CNA at Sierra Hills for around 14 years, said she has seen the quality of the facility decline drastically in that time.
“The community has supported us a lot, and we definitely appreciate that and appreciate that they can see what we’re trying to do, and that we are concerned for the residents, as well as ourselves,” Handelman said. “We’re just trying to do the right thing, and this is the only way we had left to do it.”
Additionally, employees have said that several rooms have been infected with bedbugs in recent months, and the building had recent cases of asbestos and potential black mold, which the union was not informed about.
Community support
Nika Kelley is a cook in the kitchen staff at Sierra Hills. She said members of the kitchen staff are participating in the strike, as well, to stand in solidarity with the CNAs and RNs who say they are working in unsafe conditions, creating an unsafe environment for residents.
“To see that Edgewood Healthcare just doesn’t care that we care, and the level of concern and care that we have for our residents and the camaraderie that we, as the staff, have to make sure that our residents are cared for is absolutely phenomenal,” Kelley said. “It is disgusting that (Edgewood Healthcare) just doesn’t have that level of care that we have inside of this house.”
Many of the residents are supportive of the strike. One even had a picket sign posted in her window in support of the union. Some, however, were unaware of the unsafe working conditions prior to the WTE’s initial coverage of the issue on Dec. 18.
“You don’t see what’s happening with our other residents. You don’t see what’s happening in hospice care with our hospice patients that we have that reside here. So, not seeing any of those things, you can only judge for yourself. You can’t judge for the entire facility,” Kelley said. “… We wouldn’t be here (protesting) if we were lying about everything.”
The strike was also attended by Madi Oates, the Starbucks Workers United in-person bargaining delegate for Wyoming, who helped organize a strike for better working conditions for Starbucks employees in Cheyenne earlier this week.
Oates said she wanted to stand in solidarity with the Sierra Hills union because unions are stronger when they stand together in numbers.
“Workers deserve to have a voice. They deserve to have protections. And a lot of companies don’t follow either one of those. So, it’s important to use their voice and stand in solidarity with each other,” she said.
Edgewood Healthcare did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and Sierra Hills administrative staff refused to comment when approached by the WTE.