Missouri Veterans Home Workers Picket for Better Care

June 23, 2009

Nursing assistants and other health care workers at the Missouri Veterans Home in St. Louis – members of AFSCME Council 72 – are going public with their demands to increase staffing levels so the residents will get the care they deserve.

At an informational picket on June 17, workers explained that the home’s administrators often demand that they work more than one shift – a policy called “mandation” – because of insufficient staff. That not only affects their personal lives, the nurses say, but it also diminishes their ability to give proper attention to the 300 veterans who live at the home.

“A few months ago, we were being mandated three to four times a week,” says Regina Furr, a certified nursing assistant (CNA) and the chief shop steward for Local 2730, which represents about 280 employees at the home, including CNAs and craft and maintenance workers.

Management says “mandation is a part of the job here,” says Furr. “If you refuse, that’s an automatic termination.”

The CNAs would like to see more staff hired so that they can give the veterans proper nursing care – not to do laundry and other housekeeping tasks they now do because of inadequate help. “We’re hired to be caregivers, not to wipe off tables,” she explains.

The CNAs are now preparing for contract negotiations in August. Staffing ratios and the issue of mandation will be their key issues.

Learn more in this story and video from KSDK News Channel 5.