Sentinel photo by ED WILLIAMS William Penn Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center is among facilities owned by Valley West Health Facilities planning to hold an informational picket next week as part of a strike over what employees are calling unfair labor practices.

LEWISTOWN — Unionized nursing home workers across Pennsylvania are preparing for a potential strike this month, claiming they have reached a breaking point with Valley West Health Facilities over what they describe as months of bad-faith bargaining, canceled negotiation sessions, and unsafe staffing levels.

At William Penn Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Lewistown, employees plan to hold an informational picket on Thursday, Oct. 16, in solidarity with workers at eight other Valley West homes expected to launch a three-day Unfair Labor Practice strike beginning Oct. 14. The workers — nurses, aides, dietary, laundry, maintenance and housekeeping staff — say they have been trying to negotiate fair wages and staffing improvements since midsummer.

“We’re standing up for our residents, our communities, and the public dollars that should be going to care, not corporate profits,” said Tiffany Cothren, a certified nursing assistant at Waynesburg Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. She said Valley West has attended only one bargaining session since the summer and has offered no proposal in response to the unions. “They are not bargaining in good faith,” she said.

The dispute comes as Pennsylvania’s long-term care industry struggles to recover from staffing shortages and financial strain deepened by the pandemic. Valley West, a New Jersey-based company, purchased 10 Guardian Healthcare nursing homes in 2024 after Guardian filed for bankruptcy. The facilities, spanning from Erie to Lewistown, serve nearly 1,000 residents and employ about 750 union members represented by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

Union officials say they filed Unfair Labor Practice charges in August, claiming the company refused to provide financial and operational information needed for negotiations. They allege that Valley West canceled two scheduled bargaining sessions, including one planned for Oct. 3, and has ignored multiple requests to continue talks.

In a press briefing Monday, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania President Matt Yarnell criticized Valley West’s management for calling the union’s planned actions “reckless.” “What’s reckless,” Yarnell said, “is not actually getting in it and bargaining in good faith with your workers. These people work incredibly hard taking care of the most vulnerable people in our community, and they deserve to be respected.”

Workers across the facilities describe frustration with what they see as indifference from the company’s new ownership. “Valley West’s behavior feels so disrespectful to the residents and to the workers who show up 24/7 for them,” said Tyreika Tate, a dietary cook for 40 years at Walnut Creek Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Erie. “We were looking forward to working closely to retain and recruit caregivers and improve care, but instead the company is not bargaining in good faith.”

Under federal labor law, health care facilities must receive at least 10 days’ notice before a strike. The union delivered its notices last week, setting the stage for a possible work stoppage beginning Oct. 14 at eight homes: Clarion, Haida, Oil City, Richland, Titusville, Uniontown, Walnut Creek, and Waynesburg. Informational pickets, including the one in Lewistown, are scheduled for Oct. 16.

The dispute highlights larger challenges within the state’s nursing home system. Nearly one-third of Pennsylvania’s nursing homes have changed ownership in the past seven years, often through out-of-state investors. Advocates say that instability, combined with low pay and high turnover, has worsened care conditions for residents. State data show that about one in three Pennsylvanians will be over age 65 by 2030, straining an already fragile workforce.

Union leaders point to other operators, such as Saber Healthcare and the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, who have partnered with SEIU on staffing and wage initiatives. They say Valley West’s reluctance to engage stands out. “More than 60 other nursing homes raised wages this summer to help retain staff,” Yarnell said. “Valley West hasn’t even shown up to bargain.”

The company has maintained it remains open to negotiations and, according to media inquiries cited during Monday’s briefing, says a bargaining session is set for Oct. 16. Union representatives argue that scheduling a meeting the day after the strike is to begin is “very convenient,” in Cothren’s words, and another example of stalling tactics.

William Penn Healthcare’s workers will join colleagues statewide to draw attention to what they describe as underinvestment in care. While the Lewistown facility is not expected to walk out, participants say the picket aims to alert the public to the situation before it escalates.

If no agreement is reached, the strike could be among the largest nursing home labor actions in Pennsylvania in recent years, a sign of rising tensions in an industry that workers say has reached its limit.