Workers Deliver Their Message: Don’t Cut Nursing Home Funding

Thursday, February 11

A lunch-time shower at the Capitol Thursday was no match for 24 determined SEIU Healthcare 775NW nursing home workers.

While state workers, legislators and everyone else scurried between buildings over a rain-soaked lunch hour, they couldn’t help but notice the nursing home workers who made their point – Don’t Cut Nursing Home Funding.

Workers displayed surgical scrubs with messages of quality care at the Capitol Sundial. The scrubs were signed by more than 100 union brothers and sisters who work at 775NW nursing homes. Chants such as, “Be bold, don’t leave seniors in the cold!” were heard around the Capitol campus.

“We came here to stop the cuts and get better funding for the residents and for us,” said Fay Westfall, a CNA at Americana in Longview.

The workers talked to legislators about a possible new nursing home funding source – the Quality Assurance Fee. The fee is designed to bring more matching federal Medicaid money into Washington’s nursing home system. Bills have been proposed in both the House and Senate to create the Quality Assurance fee.

In the afternoon, workers delivered scrubs to legislators and the governor’s office. They also took that time to hold politicians accountable. Rosaria Tafoya, who works at Hillcrest Manor in Sunnyside, explained it simply to Representative David Taylor (R-LD15).

“I told him, ‘You support our seniors and I will support you’,” Tafoya said.

Click here for a Fact Sheet on the Quality Assurance Fee.

---