YAKIMA– Nursing home workers in Yakima will be protesting as part of a national movement to demand funding for long-term care facilities that were hit hardest by the pandemic. On Thursday at 5 p.m., local nursing home workers will be in downtown Yakima protesting for facility funding and hazard pay, according to SEIU 775 caregivers union.
Also, with nursing home workers in need of more resources to safely care for people, the union says the Washington State’s Department of Health and Human Services is now proposing a $60 million cut to nursing home funding.
“Nursing home workers are essential, frontline healthcare workers That’s why we’re out here today – to demand that the State and Federal government do better to protect us and to provide the resources we need to keep ourselves and our residents safe,» said Julie Ortiz, a nursing home worker in Yakima.
Earlier this week, Governor Inslee called Yakima Valley the epicenter of Washington COVID-19 cases. The city makes less than four percent of the state population but is almost 15 percent of virus cases.