Workers at two Central Jersey facilities have raised concerns about contract negotiations and staffing. The facilities are Waterfront Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Raritan and Birchwood Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Cranford, where staff say they have gone without a union contract since Atlas Healthcare Group took over.
The workers, represented by 1199SEIU, are pushing for better salaries and improved staffing levels, according to NJ.com. Union representatives say Atlas Healthcare instituted its own employment terms after acquiring the two facilities in May 2021, eliminating retirement benefits, paid time off and sick leave in the process. The company has not contributed to workers' retirement plan since purchasing the nursing homes, per the outlet's report.
Andy Cassagnol, a union representative, said Atlas Healthcare has been very difficult at the bargaining table and has moved slowly through the process. “Workers are fed up,” Cassagnol said, describing the mood among staff after years without a settled contract.
Workers Describe Exhaustion and Ignored Complaints
Yania Mock, a worker at one of the facilities, said she was in charge of 32 patients by herself in her wing. Violeta Galvez, who has worked at the Raritan facility for 12 years, said she earns under $16 per hour and has developed fatigue, body aches and arthritis on the job. Galvez said her employer ignored her concerns when she raised them.
The article also discusses workers at the Raritan facility.
Staff stress and resident care are part of the discussion. The staffing complaints echo a broader pattern across the state: under New Jersey statute N.J.S.A. 30:13-18, nursing homes are required to maintain direct-care staff-to-resident ratios of one certified nurse aide per eight residents on day shifts, one direct-care staff member per ten residents on evening shifts, and one per fourteen residents on night shifts. A recent NJ Advance Media analysis found that 59 percent of New Jersey nursing homes failed to meet minimum staffing requirements in the first quarter of 2022, according to Stark & Stark.
According to the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman’s 2024 annual report, staff investigated 19,387 complaints in fiscal year 2024, a 13.3% increase over 2023 and the sixth consecutive year of increases.
Facility Staffing Information
The article discusses staffing at both facilities.
The sourced material does not include a response from Atlas Healthcare.
A Legal Gap Left Workers Unprotected
New Jersey passed a law in 2022 requiring healthcare successor employers to maintain employment terms when nursing home ownership changes. Atlas Healthcare acquired the Raritan and Cranford facilities in May 2021, months before Senate Bill 315 took effect in November 2022, according to Stevens & Lee. The article does not establish whether the law applied to the Atlas acquisition.
Atlas Healthcare Group was established in New Jersey in 2019 and has since expanded across the Northeast, according to Atlas Healthcare Group. 1199SEIU represents nursing home workers at both the Waterfront and Birchwood facilities as part of a union that represents over 8,000 healthcare workers statewide and more than 450,000 members across five states—New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Florida—plus Washington, D.C., per Insider NJ.
The article also discusses labor disputes in Union County. The article does not provide details about a previous dispute at Complete Care at Clark. New Jersey has its own staffing statute, which remains relevant to care standards at facilities across the state.
