Page 4 - Tom Dinki News Today

The COVID-19 pandemic and a statewide shortage of health care workers has perhaps emboldened nursing home workers, who often receive low wages.

Starbucks workers' allegations, currently being reviewed by the National Labor Relations Board, include surveillance and intimidation, closing stores, hiring new workers to dilute union elections, and even firing union leaders.

Black older Americans are more likely to have chronic health conditions and die prematurely than white older Americans, while at the same time likely to have large retirement savings and own their own home. In Buffalo, where 37% of U.S.-born older adults are Black, the largest share of any city in New York state, those inequalities are also present.

WBFO asked nursing home stakeholders to grade Gov. Kathy Hochul’s handling of the industry as she marks six months in office Thursday. They gave her mostly positive reviews while acknowledging that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo set a low bar.

It took Canadian Starbucks workers 10 months to reach their contract agreement last June, and that was in a country where over a quarter of the workforce is unionized and there’s labor law advantages that Buffalo workers simply don’t have under U.S. labor law.

Buffalo Police say a student and a security guard were both shot at McKinley High School late Wednesday afternoon. The guard's injuries are relatively minor, the student however is undergoing surgery with few concrete details being released.

Although New York's safe staffing law is currently on pause due to a labor shortage, nursing home workers and resident advocates are concerned with how the state plans to enforce it once it does go into effect.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing to spend $10 billion to increase the state’s health care workforce by 20% over the next five years. It’s not yet clear how much of that money would be earmarked for health care workers in nursing homes, but any funding to attract workers there could be crucial, considering New York nursing homes have lost 13% of their workforce since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 80 agencies statewide signed a letter last month asking Gov. Kathy Hochul to create a Master Plan for Aging, something of a state road map for addressing issues faced by the state’s rapidly aging population.

Tom Dinki joined WBFO in August 2019 to cover issues affecting older adults.