Nursing Home Strike Continues

As a strike at nursing homes in Ansonia and Derby entered its eighth day Friday, workers walking the picket line said the mood remains upbeat.

We’re a stronger a week into it then we were when we started,” said Barbara Halliman, a kitchen worker at Birmingham Health Center on Chatfield Street in Derby.

Click the video for an interview with Halliman recorded Friday morning.

About 200 people at Birmingham Health and at Hilltop Health Center in Ansonia walked off the job last Thursday.

The facilities are owned by Spectrum Healthcare, based in Vernon. Workers are also striking at Spectrum nursing homes in Hartford and Winsted.

The workers have been without a contract since March 2009. Talks between the union and the owners broke off last Tuesday.

On Saturday, union workers and former residents of Spectrum facilities will be rallying in front of the Park Place Health Center in Hartford as a show of support for the job action.

Deborah Chernoff, spokeswoman for the New England Health Care Employees Union, said the two sides are tentatively scheduled to sit down May 3 to talk about contracts for employees at Spectrum’s Laurel Hill facility in Winsted. Negotiations for Park Place employees is scheduled for May 10.

No dates have yet been confirmed for either Birmingham or Hilltop,” Chernoff wrote in an e‑mail.

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