Service Employees International Union Local 2015, a statewide union representing dozens of nursing home workers in Fresno and thousands across California, rallied to finalize a new contract outside Keystone Post Acute in Fresno on Thursday.
A group of about a dozen organizers, participants and elected officials who made an appearance at Fresno’s rally described the demonstration as an effort to bring Bayshire LLC — the Southern California-based health care company that supports the local facility — back to the table to finalize non-economic aspects of the new contract.
“We’ve kind of resolved the central piece of the contract,” said Vicki Vang, an organizer with SEIU Local 2015 in the Fresno area. “Bayshire hasn’t settled the non-economic piece of the contract.
“The members are out here to make sure that they resolve some of the issues that they have here in the facility,” she added, “which is obviously understaffing.”
But in an email an hour into the rally, a co-owner and operator with the health care group, Benjamin Carter, said they’d already reached an agreement with the union that the facility was “eager to ratify.”
“We are committed to continuing collaboration with SEIU,” Carter added, “to address employee concerns and reach mutually beneficial solutions.”
In a brief interview Friday, Carter said that they had reached an agreement prior to Thursday.
Union officials later added on Thursday that Keystone Post Acute reached out to them at some point during the rally to “reach an agreement.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether this agreement was only over the non-economic aspects of the contract.
Thursday’s demonstration followed others in Southern California as SEIU looks to finalize its first-ever “multiemployer contract” covering about 140 facilities in the state.
Two members of the Fresno City Council — Annalisa Perea and Mike Karbassi — attended Thursday’s rally, as did Supervisor Luis Chavez. SEIU Local 2015 endorsed Chavez in his successful bid to oust incumbent Sal Quintero in the 2024 elections.
Chavez said it’s important to build a stable workforce in local nursing homes to relieve pressure on other aspects of the local health care system.
“If you don’t have the staffing levels at a nursing home to do a lot of the preventative work — medication, people that have diabetes, that had a stroke, that had an aneurysm, high blood pressure, asthma, respiratory problems — where do they end up? They end up in the emergency room,” Chavez said, where patients in the Central Valley wait hours more than the national average.
Richard Becerra, whose in-home caregiver is a member of SEIU Local 2015, also showed up to Thursday’s rally. Becerra was hit by a car while crossing a road about a year ago. He said he can only stand for certain periods of time, but now that he’s walking again, he uses his mobility to advocate for SEIU workers.
“‘Ask and you shall receive’ — that’s what God said, and that’s what they’re doing,” Becerra said of SEIU caregivers. “They deserve more wages, they sure do.”
