October 19, 2007

By Stanley Dorsey

We need better supplies, not cheaper. We need more staff, not less.

I’ve worked as a floor tech at a Manor Care home in Maryland for five years now. My job is to strip and wax the floors. I wish I could tell you that’s all I do.

It’s not.

I work on the environmental services team. Our job is to keep the place clean. And in a place with so many sick people, and so many people with weakened immune systems, our work is essential to keeping people healthy.

The problem is, on a lot of days—even though I work hard from 7 a.m. straight through to 3 p.m.—I don’t have what I need to do my job right. Our cleaning supplies run out, and we’re left empty-handed until the next shipment arrives. There simply aren’t enough of us there every day to get everything done up to par, so we have to pick and choose what’s going to get cleaned, and what can wait ‘til tomorrow.

I mentioned before that cleaning isn’t all I do. Some days I’m running patients back and forth from dialysis. Sure it’s not in my job description, but when a patient needs to get there, and there aren’t enough medical staff to help them, what do you do if you’re the cleaning guy? You help them out, of course.

I came on this caravan because I’m concerned about the quality of work I and my coworkers are able to provide. I know that when private equity firms bought out some other chains, they “improved” the budgets by cutting staff and resources. I’m here to ask the Carlyle Group not to let that happen at Manor Care. A lot of money is going to exchange hands in this deal, and I just hope that some of it will go to helping us do our jobs better.

Stanley Dorsey is a member of SEIU 1199 UHE in Maryland.