Every morning, a nearly 90-year-old resident in my building asks me to help her put on her jewelry. Before she moved into the nursing home, she struggled to complete this simple yet significant task, but now that she’s here, assisting her is one of my most meaningful duties. It reminds me of why I chose this path. People like this resident keep me going.
As a dedicated nursing home laundry worker in Minnesota for five years, I ensure residents live in a safe environment and have clean bedding. Families rely on me to care for their loved ones, and it’s a task that I never take lightly. My work is not only to help keep residents clean, but to provide them with dignity.
Unfortunately, the nursing home industry is not without its challenges. Short staffing is a significant issue that plagues facilities across the state. It’s a struggle to attract and retain qualified caregivers when the pay is so low. In my department, housekeeping and laundry, just two of us are assigned to care for over 120 residents — an immense and unsustainable workload.
Last month I hopped on a plane and headed to Washington, D.C., but it wasn’t just to tour the monuments. I was there at the invitation of a national policy institute to share how here in Minnesota we’re leading the way in addressing the crisis facing the nursing home industry.
A big part of the problem is that while the state has increased funding to nursing home operators, it hasn’t trickled down to caregivers. In my last decade of service, my pay has only inched up from $16 to $18 an hour. Needless to say, it’s impossible to get ahead on $37,000 a year, and knowing how emotionally and physically challenging this work is, it isn’t surprising that more people are leaving this industry than joining it.
For nursing home workers, decent wages and manageable staffing levels aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’re necessities to help us provide the quality care our residents deserve. They would allow us to spend meaningful time with our residents, and to live without the constant anxiety of financial instability.
From our vantage point, we’re past the point of crisis. That’s why I recently joined with nursing home workers across Minnesota to ratify a list of demands to improve care and help make nursing home work a safe, rewarding job.
We’re calling for a $25 minimum wage for all nursing home workers in Minnesota, the freedom to join with our coworkers in a union free of intimidation and retaliation, a secure and dignified retirement plan for all workers, and staffing levels that ensure safety for both residents and caregivers.
We’re mobilizing to highlight the urgency of Minnesota’s care crisis and calling on the recently created Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board to not only listen to our collective voice but to witness firsthand the challenging conditions we face daily. It was because of this board, which is the first of its kind in the country to bring together workers, operators, and the government and has the power to actually raise standards, that I was in our nation’s capital.
Nursing home workers in Minnesota are resolute in our stance. We’re pushing for immediate action to address the pressing issues in our industry — and assurances that the money going to nursing homes isn’t just pocketed by executives and administrators but goes to those who do the work to make our facilities run.
We’re not just fighting for ourselves; we’re fighting for the well-being and dignity of our residents who deserve nothing less than the best care and attention. Our nursing home workers and residents can’t wait any longer for change.
Teresa Brees is a nursing home housekeeping and laundry worker in Roseville and a member of SEIU Healthcare MN & IA.
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