Pawtucket Falls Caregivers Denounce New Management’s Demands for Major Bargaining Concessions After Years of Ownership Churn

I have worked at Pawtucket for twenty years and despite our dedication, we have not received a raise in years. Because of low pay, I often have to work doubles - 16 hour shifts two or three days a week. I also have a chronic back injury that has required me to take up to six months off to recover. We already do not take home much pay, and if our cost of healthcare goes up, even more of our paycheck will go toward that.

- Magdaline Smith, Certified Nursing Assistant

With each change in ownership, we watched staffing fall apart as well as our physical kitchen. We’ve had to fight for basic necessities for years. We want our concerns about heat and air conditioning to be prioritized. We want the elevators to stop constantly breaking as it is a strain on every department. This is not just for our sake but for our residents.

- Esabel Chuka, Dietary Aide

Our residents deserve comfort and dignity in this stage of their lives. Instead, I often feel like I don’t even have five spare minutes to sit and talk with them. It often feels like no matter how hard we work, we can’t do enough which makes staff get burned out and leave. In one weekend alone, four employees quit. At one point we had only two CNAs caring for 22 residents. For our residents’ sake, what we really need is more staffing on every unit, better pay and affordable healthcare so we can attract and retain workers. At the end of the day, we just want to do our best.

- Donawea Towah, Licensed Nurse Practitioner