Astoria, Queens, NY - Workers Want Owner To Head Union Vote

Astoria, Queens, NY - Nurses, dieticians, housekeepers and other workers at New York Center for Rehabilitation on 21st Street in Astoria are fed up with management’s refusal to recognize their union vote.   

Health care workers at an Astoria nursing home voted two years ago for new union representation, but still haven’t seen the better wages and health care they hoped for. They claim management is denying them their rightful voice as it drags the case through a lengthy court challenge.    

In March 2004, they overwhelmingly voted for Local 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East to represent them. But the facility owner, Chaim Sieger, challenged the vote in court and so far has refused to recognize the workers’ wishes.
One worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said she deserves higher wages and a better health insurance plan. She was among the 200 employees who planned a picketing to pressure management and raise public awareness.    

The case is now in its last stop on the court circuit, pending review in the District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.    The union believes the court will uphold the workers’ vote and that Sieger would have been better off spending his money on a new contract rather than lawyers.    "He’d rather pay legal fees than give anything to the members,” she said.