Strike threat could push hundreds out of group homes and into nursing homes

Hundreds of developmentally disabled group home residents, trapped in a game of state budget brinkmanship, could be transferred into nursing homes next Thursday unless that battle is resolved soon.

At least two of the private, nonprofit agencies hired by the state to run group homes have begun plans to move clients into congregate care centers — or to send them to live with their families — if about 2,000 human service aides belonging to SEIU District 1199 New England go on strike next Friday.

Union members, who say they have faced years of low pay and poor benefits — and then risked illness and death working during the first year of the coronavirus — insist conditions must improve.

The industry, which delivers the bulk of state-sponsored social services, is pressing Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly to reverse more than a decade of under-funding.

Read more: https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Strike-threat-could-push-hundreds-out-of-group-16213331.php
The Hour (Norwalk)