WESTGATE NURSING HOME WORKERS APPROVE FIRST EVER UNION CONTRACT

1199
SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
Upstate
New York Division                              

Service Employees International
Union
225 West Broad Street,  Suite
B
Rochester, New York  14608
Telephone:  
   (585)-244-0830
Fax:           
(585)-244-0956
Website:        www.1199seiu.org


MEDIA
RELEASE           DECEMBER 21,
2008


WESTGATE NURSING HOME WORKERS
APPROVE FIRST EVER UNION
CONTRACT

UNANIMOUS VOTE COMES AFTER
MONDAY PICKET

AGREEMENT GIVES FIRST PAY
RAISE IN 5 YEARS

        (Gates, NY) -
Westgate Nursing Home employees' four year
quest for
a union contract ended Thursday
with unanimous approval of their first
ever
collective bargaining agreement.  The
workers reached a tentative agreement
with
Westgate management Monday just two hours after
informational
picketing began in front of
the facility on Beahan Road.  With news of
the
tentative agreement, the picketing
stopped.  

        Union members voted
by secret ballot Thursday at the facility. 
The
vote to approve was unanimous. 
Highlights of the two year
agreement
include:

        - Five
percent in pay increases (two and one-half
percent in
December, 2008, and two and
one-half percent in December, 2009), the
first
wage increases in five years.

 
      - Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday as a
new paid holiday.

        - Coverage by
the union's training and educational fund in
2009.

        - Job security and due
process protections.


        "I am
so glad that we have won our first contract."
said Michelle
Lane, a certified nursing
assistant.  "I thank my coworkers for
sticking
together and the community for
their support."
        
        Eighty
staff of the facility are involved.  They work
as licensed
practical nurses, certified
nursing assistants, dietary, housekeeping,
and
other service assistants.  The workers
organized a chapter of 1199 SEIU in
2004,
and have been negotiating for a first contract
since 2005.

        Westgate Nursing
Home is a 124 bed, for-profit long tern
care
facility located at 525 Beahan Road in
Gates, New York.  The workers are
members of
1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.  1199
SEIU members in
the Rochester area work at
the UR Medical Center, Jordan Health
Center,
Wesley Gardens, Latta Road, and
Aaron Manor nursing homes, and at
the
Blossom nursing centers.

       
For further information, please contact Dana
Alas at (585)
738-2698
(cellphone).