Michigan – Judge Blocks Veterans Home Privatization, Preserves Quality Care

Employees of the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans – members of Local 261 (Michigan Council 25) – demonstrated against a scheme to privatize their facility. (Photo by Ronnie Skorupski)

A judge’s ruling last fall blocking the privatization of a Michigan veterans’ home did far more than save the jobs of 170 employees. The decision preserves a higher quality of care for more than 650 residents who depend on those workers every day, said Mark Williams, president of Local 261 (Council 25).

Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield declared in October that the home’s residents would suffer “irreparable injury” if the privatization plan took effect.

“This issue has always been about the quality of the care we provide,” says Williams, a resident certified nurse aide who has worked at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans for 17 years. “We do the work better than anyone. We are sometimes the only family these veterans have.”

That family would have been broken up had the state prevailed in its effort to turn the facility over to a private contractor that currently provides some of the nursing aides.

Local 261, representing the home’s nursing aides, battled the privatization scheme before the state Civil Service Commission. The lawsuit resulted from the commission’s failure to act.

Tony Spallone, a Vietnam veteran who lives at the home and is the lead plaintiff, alleged that the private contractor’s employees were responsible for improper care at the facility. He said the state workers provide better care.

Williams contends the state was more worried about money than about the quality of care. “You can’t just farm out that work to the cheapest bidder,” he says. “You get what you pay for. The veterans who live at the home deserve quality care, and it finally took a court ruling to make sure they get it.”