This month, workers rallied at nursing homes across the state to raise awareness over a gap in New York’s proposed budget.

Our reporter, Sean Mulkerrin, was the lone observer of the rally in front of the nursing home in Guilderland Center. The event was organized by 1199 Service Employees International Union.

During their lunch break, about two dozen workers stood in front of the facility, holding signs and banging on pots and pans as they chanted.

We ran a picture of them on our front page because we believe what they had to say is important. And, as the negotiations for the state budget drag on well past the April 1 deadline, there is still time to make a difference.

The banging on pots and pans was meant to be a reminder of the cheering New Yorkers did in the depths of the pandemic for the frontline health-care workers who did their jobs day in and day out, risking their own health and lives, as many of the rest of us worked safely from home.

“What do we want?” shouted a man.

“Health-care funding,” answered a chorus.

“When do we want it?”

“Now!”

Together, they chanted, again and again, “This is about quality care.”

We’ve heard the request for quality care at that same nursing home for decades — before it was owned by The Grand, even before the workers unionized.

Two decades ago — giving just one heartbreaking example — we wrote of a 99-year-old resident of the home who felt she was ignored when in pain. Her son described a visit where he heard eight residents seeking help, their calls unanswered.

A certified nursing assistant at the time, Antionette Robinson, told us, “We can’t even cut their [the residents’] nails. There’s no time for it.” She said workers had only 10 or 11 minutes each day to spend with each resident.

The nursing home in Guilderland Center is not unique. These are complaints that have been heard not just locally for decades but across the state and nation.

Something, though, was markedly different about Mulkerrin’s story. Over our many years of writing about residents’ complaints or workers’ complaints, the other side of the story came from management, which would often maintain the complaints lacked merit, or from politicians, who would say there was nothing they could do.

But now, all of those parties are in agreement. And all of them support what could be a workable solution.

The union is looking to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10 percent for hospitals and 20 percent for nursing homes. Medicaid, which started with the 1965 Social Security Act, is a joint federal- and state-funded health-care plan for low-income and disabled residents.

SEIU claims the governor’s proposed 5-percent Medicaid rate increase is “entirely offset” by changes to how the state pays for drugs that are part of a federal pricing program and also by cuts to a state program that provides funding assistance to hospitals “for the cost of care for low income individuals,” according to the program itself.

The Grand’s administrator, Nyoki Tate, told Mulkerrin, “The cost of living is consistently rising. Inflation is through the roof right now. And, if your salary [is] maintained the same, how are you going to survive in this, in today's economy?”

It’s hard for nursing homes to recruit and retain workers. If they were paid more, both would be easier. 

Consistency is important for nursing-home residents. A turnstyle of workers, understandably seeking jobs with better pay, is disruptive for residents.

Many studies have shown the importance of consistent relationships in assuring the well being of elderly and ill people.

Tate also said that having fewer in-house workers has led to the facility to use an agency “a lot more,” which increases employee costs significantly. Using an outside employment agency “on average, maybe doubles what you would pay for each [in-house] staff member,” she said.

The heart of the problem, though, is perhaps best grasped from a worker’s point of view.

“These residents are suffering because we have no staff. We have no staff because nobody wants to work,” Lashonta Gordon told Mulkerrin. “Nobody wants to come here. They know we’re working short.”

Gordon has been a certified nurse assistant for 22 years, the past four of which have been spent in her first union job, at The Grand in Guilderland.

The lack of workers has led to burnout, Gordon said, stating that she has to work extra hours to make up for the staffing shortage.

It has also led to staff injuries. Ruthie Young, an organizer with 1199 SEIU, said “working short” has led to more worker compensation claims. “Our members are getting injured,” she said, “high numbers.”

“We have a census of about 68 members,” Young said, “when we should have 125 members.”

“Working short” hurts residents as much as staff. Prior to the shortage, Gordon said, nursing assistants “had time to sit, to hold their hand, socialize.”

She said, “We don’t have the time to do that anymore.”

Her typical day includes feeding, bathing, and dressing residents, among other tasks. “And if we have the time, we’ll try to do nails and things like that, but there’s no time for stuff like that anymore.”

We’ve been hearing that for more than two decades. Remember what Antionette Robinson said in 2002?

Back then, we editorialized, “Part of a solution could be volunteers lending their time to file patients’ nails or feed them meals or simply talk with them regularly.”

But really, while volunteers could provide many important services, this is something our government’s social safety net should embrace.

The current alignment — of politicians, union workers, and management — makes it clear that now is the time to act.

Elderly and ailing nursing-home residents are among the most vulnerable members of our society. They are there because their families cannot care for them.

As a civilized society, we have an obligation, through our government, through the taxes each one of us pays, to care for our most vulnerable. Now is the time to make good on that commitment.