Union workers rally at Westmoreland Manor, cite wage, staffing issues in county contract talks

Members of a union representing more than 500 Westmoreland County employees picketed Friday in front of the county-owned nursing home, saying county officials aren’t proposing a fair contract as the workers’ four-year labor agreement is set to expire at the end of the month.

Representatives of Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare Pennsylvania say the county’s latest contract offer doesn’t offer adequate wages or address understaffing, including at Westmoreland Manor in Hempfield.

“I don’t think they’re taking it serious,” Carol Marol said of the county’s offer. She is a licensed practical nurse at Westmoreland Manor and a union negotiating committee member.

“They’re not even offering to bring us up to the cost-of-living increase,” Marol said.

Salaries for union employees have been limited to terms of the last labor contract that called for 2% annual average raises, in addition to bonus pay for nurses and telecommunication workers.

Annual raises for elected county officials — based on the Consumer Price Index, as mandated by a county ordinance — and for nonunion employees totaled more than 13% over the past two years.

“We have two negotiating sessions coming up next week,” said Michelle Jenkins, a union representative and a county weights and measures inspector. “We’ll see how it goes from there. What the county offered doesn’t begin to address the staffing issues, it doesn’t address the money issues, it didn’t address anything.”

“Westmoreland County needs to raise wages, or else our county will keep losing the workers who provide the best care,” said Marol, who has worked at Westmoreland Manor for 26 years.

Marol said resident numbers at Westmoreland Manor have fallen, and two of the facility’s nine units are closed because of understaffing.

She said Manor staff have been leaving for better-paying jobs while new management positions have been added. She said personnel brought in from outside agencies have outnumbered county staffers on some shifts.

“We need regular nurse aides here to look after these people,” Sharon Stinebiser, a union housekeeping employee, said of the Westmoreland Manor residents.

She said workers from outside agencies “don’t know these people. They don’t know if something’s wrong.”

County Commissioner Ted Kopas wouldn’t discuss contract specifics while negotiations are continuing.

“We had a very productive session last week,” he said of the talks, which have been underway since early in the year. “I’m confident that we’re going to arrive at a deal that’s of mutual benefit to the workers and to the taxpayers.”

Kopas said the county is in a “tenuous financial position” and noted staffing is a concern for many private sectors as well as for county government.

“It’s not my preference to have agency staff at our nursing home,” he said.

Kopas previously served as a county commissioner from 2010 through 2019. He returned to the role in August, appointed to fill a vacancy on the county board, and was elected in November to a new term as commissioner.

Kopas has called for amending the ordinance regarding pay for county elected officials, proposing a 2.5% cap on annual raises.

“The county doesn’t have a money problem, it has a management problem,” Jenkins said. “They’re creating management positions when they don’t even have people to manage. We are understaffed, underpaid and overworked.”

She said the county wasn’t receptive to the union’s proposal to restore a longevity pay incentive as a way to attract and retain workers. That incentive was dropped in a previous contract, she said.

In addition to nurses and other staff at Westmoreland Manor, county workers represented by the union include 911 emergency center dispatchers, Area Agency on Aging caseworkers, juvenile detention and probation officers, and some courthouse workers.