OUR UNION
The Pandemic Hastened Change in New York’s Hudson Valley But workers at two area healthcare facilities are waging age-old fights for pay and benefits.
18
January-February 2021
As COVID-19 raged throughout New York City’s metropolitan area, there was an unexpected pilgrimage north to New York’s Hudson Valley. Real estate brokers touted economic renewal and a revived sense of close-knit, small-town community. Healthcare facilities proudly displayed banners proclaiming that “Healthcare Heroes Work Here.” It was a tableau of Rockwellian Americana. The reality is quite different. Gentrification’s soft-focus excludes the area’s essential workers, most of whom are longtime residents. Far from the Hudson Valley’s social media “glow up,” workers at Columbia Memorial Hospital (CMH) and Livingston Hills Nursing Home in Hudson, NY, toil caring for the sick; short staffed, exhausted by unbearable overtime, and fearful for their lives and the lives of their families. At both Livingston Hills and CMH, 1199ers have been in protracted contract negotiations, without raises and denied crisis pay for over a year, despite very public campaigns and intense media scrutiny. Rather than heroes, they say, they are treated like zeros. “The signs?” Livingston Hills CNA Donna Decker inquired incredulously. “The owner doesn’t
value us. If he did, he would not be demanding that we give up our 1199 health insurance for insurance with high premiums and co-pays. Our wages don’t even keep up with the cost of living, so most of us can’t to afford that. And [he’s doing this] right in the middle of a devastating healthcare crisis?” In late fall negotiations, Livingston Hills management refused to discuss any health insurance proposal other than their own. They abruptly left the bargaining session. Furious Livingston Hills members began organizing. A December candlelight vigil at the nursing home drew strong community support, including long timers, newcomers, and elected officials. “You’re fighting for something that should be so simple, in front of a sign that’s calling you heroes,” said Kamal Johnson, mayor of Hudson, a town that has become emblematic of Hudson Valley’s schism between long-time residents and wealthy, downstate gentrifiers. “I’m here to make sure that you have the support of the community. I want you guys to know that I have your back.” Anne Marie Fran, a Livingston Hills housekeeper, who recently
