Worker on strike: “I'm going to continue to get on his nerves until he gives us what we want.”
Shantonia Jackson stands outside of City View Multicare Center On Novemer 27th, 2020 in Cicero, IL. (Image provided by SEIU Healthcare)
By Irene Romulo
Workers at City View Multicare Center in Cicero have been on strike for eight days demanding higher wages, pandemic pay and proper personal protective equipment. They join workers at 11 other facilities, all owned by Infinity Health Care Management, who are also on strike demanding improved working conditions.
City View Multicare Center had 249 confirmed people who tested positive for COVID-19. Since the outbreak, workers have continued to care for the center’s residents. Cicero and Berwyn residents have joined the striking workers daily including members of Black Workers Matter, a group that represents individuals who were fired from Bimbo Bakery in Cicero after they expressed concerns with working conditions during the pandemic.
Shantonia Jackson has worked at City View for the past five years. She is a certified nursing assistant. During the pandemic she has been taking care of sixty to seventy residents. Cicero Independiente interviewed her over the phone to get her thoughts on the strike.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Romulo: What does it mean to you to be called an essential worker?
Jackson: It means a lot, because I feel like I care about people. I love people. I jeopardize my life every day, going through the COVID at City View. When we had our first outbreak, which was 160 something residents that became sick, I was the only CNA on the floor because both of my co-workers got COVID. They didn't give us the proper PPE.
I had been wearing a mask for weeks already. I had been watching the world news and I was wondering what was happening. So the more I did my research, the more I knew something was not right. President [Trump] wasn't giving us proper information. And so I kept telling my two other two co-workers to wear a mask. They thought they would be sent home if they wore it. One day I came in and they told me I couldn't wear my mask and to take it off. I told [management] to send me home. But he couldn't send me home because we were short staffed so I continued to wear my mask, they never made me take my mask off.
Romulo: What was a typical workday like before the pandemic?
Jackson: I was working with 70 men on the floor, five of them in wheelchairs. I have to change them. We have to make sure they get their food, make sure they take a proper shower, that their teeth are brushed, that their paperwork is done. City view is a multi care center which means we have regular elderly and we have psych residents and others but I’m just one brain. I got 70 brains coming at me and it's just me. They say ‘I need a towel, could you do this? Could you help me make my bed? I need some sheets.’ A bunch of things.
Romulo: What was it like to have to go to work at the beginning of the pandemic?
Jackson: Well, I was so paranoid every day. I would come to my house, drop my clothes at the door, put them in a bag, take a shower. I would go to work the next morning, I would gear up from head to toe. Eventually when it was really bad they was giving us the proper PPE which was the N95 mask. Now they just give us these regular masks. The little blue ones, white on one side blue on the other side. Those little flimsy ones you buy at the store. We haven't had any N95 masks since the Town of Cicero stopped investigating us. They stopped giving us shields, they stopped giving us goggles, they stopped giving us the shoe coverings, they stopped giving us the gown. They just give us these little masks.
Two of my co-workers died. Camelia Kirkwood was two months shy of retirement. She had been working there 25 years and she died two weeks after she got the COVID for not wearing a mask. That really, really hurt me. Infinity didn't even send her flowers to her funeral. They didn't even put a picture up to acknowledge her. We also had another coworker named Rosie Swain, who was a nurse in that building for over 30 years. She also passed away and they didn't send her family anything either.
Romulo: And so what is it that you are fighting for? Why are you on strike?
Jackson: I make $14.30 an hour. I don't even make $15. So what I'm striking for is to make at least $15.50 an hour. Other departments that we have, like dietary, laundry housekeeping and psych techs, make less than me so we want at least $15 for them too.
We need proper PPE and COVID pay. About about two months ago, our whole fourth floor was quarantined with COVID again. But they would only pay us $5 extra an hour if we worked that COVID floor but that wasn't for everybody in the building. It was only for the nurses and the two CNAs that worked the floor. It wasn’t for the housekeepers, not for the laundry workers, not for maintenance, not for nobody. Just those people.
Romulo: How have the City View owners responded to your demands?
Jackson: We are striking right now because he wants to give us 20 cents as a raise. 20 cents! That's an insult. We are in the middle of a pandemic. They gave [Moishe Gobin] $12.7 million in April. Here it is November, and you want to give us 20 cents? That's an insult. But he said we're heroes. He said at the bargaining table, ‘We're family. I love you guys.’ And I said, ‘Then give us what we deserve.’
We're short staffed every day. If you look at the statistics, CNAs are some of the most overworked, underpaid people. They don’t hire extra CNAs and CNAs don’t want to come in for a start rate of $13.10 when you can go somewhere else and make $15.50.
At other places the workers threatened to go on strike but at the last minute the association gave their workers what they wanted and they didn't go on strike. With us he didn't give us anything. He told me he's gonna hire his lawyers, I said ‘Go ahead, we're gonna go on strike’. Right now, I got people texting me and calling me saying that the manager said he'll pay them $17 an hour if they go into work. I told them not to go because it’s a trick. Now they know how we feel. When we can't be with our families for the holidays and we have to be in here while they sit at home with their family. Let them know how we feel. Maybe they will appreciate us more.
Romulo: What support from the community do you need?
Jackson: We need to stand up! Come on out there. Call Infinity and tell them you know what’s going on. You live in Cicero, right?
Romulo: Yes, I do.
Jackson: So you see our patients walking around there. You're used to seeing them, we are the ones who tell them to go out there in the community and to be nice. We tell them not to be disrespectful, we try to do whatever we can to treat people like they're our family. Especially me, I'll do it all day.
Right now we have a strike fund that people can support us with. I have a few members that have four or five kids but they're out there striking. Christmas is coming up so we’re trying to have something because this man seems like he doesn't want to budge! We just had a car caravan [to Infinity Nursing Home Headquarters]. He called the police on us. We must be getting on his nerves. But I'm going to continue to get on his nerves until he gives us what we want.
Irene Romulo is a co-founder of Cicero Independiente.
