Sun Healthcare Under Fire

Boston -- (Business Wire) -- Oct. 14, 1998

Sun Healthcare Group, the third- largest nursing-home operator in the country, is under fire this week in the Northeast, amid allegations that the company puts its bottom line ahead of patient care. In Connecticut yesterday, workers at nine Sun-operated homes voted by an overwhelming margin to authorize a strike; the vote is expected to lead to strike action against all nine Sun-owned facilities in Connecticut by the end of the month.

One hundred fifty workers at two Sun-operated homes in Massachusetts have been on strike since September 13. The strike vote in Connecticut was prompted by Sun's decision to hire permanent replacements for the two Massachusetts nursing homes.

According to Deborah Chernoff, a spokesperson for New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, the union that represents nursing home workers in Connecticut: "1199 members across the state understand that if Sun succeeds in keeping Massachusetts workers in poverty, they'll be next. We want to let Sun know that hiring permanent replacements in indefensible and unacceptable. The 1200 members at Sun homes in Connecticut intend to fight -- for themselves and for their co-workers to the north."

Albuquerque-based Sun began making headlines in the Northeast several weeks ago, when it announced that it would be permanently replacing some of the striking workers at the two Massachusetts facilities. Patient-care advocates were particularly alarmed at the company's decision to replace Certified Nursing Assistants with untrained, unlicensed nursing assistants.

Last week, patient-care advocates, national union leaders, as well as politicians and members of the clergy participated in rallies at the two Massachusetts nursing homes. Seven people were arrested at a rally in Brighton, MA, including a Harvard University student and a prominent Massachusetts Minister.

Explains Dr. Jonathan Fine, the founder of the international organization Physicians for Human Rights and one of those arrested last Thursday: "Replacing loyal workers who have given the best years of their lives to care for their patients is an unconscionable act. Sun has not only betrayed these workers, but the patients and their families."