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- SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania claims the company has failed to bargain in good faith and has not provided raises in 2025.
- Workers at two additional facilities operated by the same company plan to hold informational pickets.
- The union represents about 750 employees across 10 facilities operated by Valley West.
Union workers at a Millcreek Township long-term care facility and seven others in western and central Pennsylvania voted to authorize a three-day strike to protest unfair labor practices by their operator, Valley West Health.
Workers at two other Valley West facilities voted to hold informational pickets, according to SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. SEIU represents nurses, nursing aides, housekeepers, and dietary, housekeeping and laundry staff at the 10 facilities.
The three-day strike is planned Oct. 14-16 at Walnut Creek Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, 4850 Zuck Road, and at facilities in Titusville, Oil City, Clarion, Waynesburg, Johnstown, Uniontown and Hastings.
Informational pickets are scheduled Oct. 16 at facilities in Warren and Lewistown.
The facilities are all operated by Valley West, a New Jersey-based subsidiary of Oxford Health, which purchased them in 2024 from Guardian Healthcare.
“No health-care worker ever wants to have to strike, but Valley West is giving us no other option,” Tiffany Cothren, a certified nursing assistant for three years at Waynesburg Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, said in a news release. “They are not bargaining in good faith, won’t provide basic information needed to negotiate, and are refusing to invest in care for residents. We are standing up for our residents, our communities, and the public dollars that should be going to care — not corporate profits.”
Union workers reached a labor deal with Valley West in 2024 after the company notified SEIU officials that it wouldn’t honor the union’s labor contract with Guardian. The deal included an opportunity to resume negotiations in 2025.
Valley West officials issued a statement that said the current contract includes a “no-strike” clause.
“We believe the union’s action of calling even a job action for only three days is reckless, irresponsible, and is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement,” Valley West officials said in the statement. “The union believes that they do not have to honor the terms of the contract which they negotiated and agreed to abide by.”
SEIU charges operator cancelled multiple contract talks, failed to provide information
Valley West appears to have little interest in reaching a new deal, SEIU officials said. Among the unfair labor practices they cited include:
- Failure to provide information needed for bargaining;
- Failure to sign agreed-upon contract in 2024;
- Attending just one bargaining session in August, which was supposed to begin in July;
- Canceling the second bargaining session on the day it was scheduled;
- Canceling the third bargaining session, which was scheduled for Oct. 3.
Valley West officials said they have scheduled a bargaining session for Oct. 16.
SEIU officials said in a news release that Valley West workers have not received raises in 2025 despite the fact that more than 60 other long-term care facilities in the region increased wages this year.
The union represents about 750 employees at the 10 Valley West facilities, including nearly 100 at Walnut Creek.
Contact David Bruce at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNBruce.
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