DETROIT— More than 300 workers at five Ciena Healthcare nursing home facilities, the largest nursing home operator in Michigan, went on strike Tuesday to demand urgent action on staffing shortages and improved conditions for both workers and residents alike.
These workers, represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Michigan, have been without contracts for months—though some have been without a contract since as far back as January 2024—and Ciena refuses to agree to retroactive pay back to the contract expiration, the union said.
The one-day strike included workers from Boulevard Temple and Regency at Chene in Detroit, Regency at St. Clair Shores, QualiCare in St. Clair Shores, and Notting Hill in West Bloomfield. The caregivers say unsafe staffing levels have made it increasingly difficult to provide the standard of care their residents deserve.
Charlesetta Wilson, the Director of Nursing Homes for SEIU Healthcare Michigan, told People’s World that the workers here in Detroit have been bargaining for a fair contract since January last year. She said the “company’s not moving in an assertive enough way to actually get the contract done, so the workers are standing up for themselves for a one-day strike.
“Ciena is proposing as little as fifty cents per hour for the certified nursing assistants (CENAs) who have worked longer than 10 years at the nursing homes,” Wilson said. “These workers cared for residents through the worst of the pandemic, and their commitment should be recognized by Ciena with fair wages.”
Rose Thomas has been a worker at Ciena for over three years and has never received a raise. The only bump in pay she’s ever received was from the state of Michigan—a $3 an hour “Hero Pay” top-up—that’s been in effect since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now they’re trying to take that away from us,” she said. “We have to take care of people. We’re being paid less than what we deserve, and all we’re asking for is a fair wage to be able to take care of our families like we take care of other people’s families.”
According to the union, Ciena is also refusing to “memorialize workers’ rights enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act as the Trump administration cuts funding to the National Labor Relations Board and threatens to eliminate it entirely.”
Elvin Smith, a CENA at the Regency at Chene, has been working there for 18 years, she told People’s World. On a typical day shift, she cares for upwards of 16 patient-residents as a single worker. That’s the norm, she said.
“Some days on the afternoon shift, they have 20 patients. Now, we can’t perform the care that they need with 20 patients or 16 patients, but Ciena doesn’t care. They just expect us to do whatever with low wages and low staffing.”
The workers’ jobs are largely funded by Medicaid—public dollars meant to support resident care. They say these public funds should be invested in safe staffing and fair pay for the workers, not skimmed and diverted toward corporate profits. Meanwhile, proposed federal cuts to Medicaid by the Republican-led House of Representatives threaten to make an already strained system worse.
“We just want respect and dignity. We love to take care of our extended family, which are the residents here at the Regency. But with low wages paid to us by the company, short staffing, and no help, we can’t perform what we need to for the residents here,” Smith told People’s World.
Staffing shortages, low wages, and high turnover have long plagued the industry, but workers say Ciena Healthcare has failed to make meaningful improvements despite repeated concerns raised over the years.
“We take care of all of a patient’s needs, from dentures to tying their shoes to cleaning up after them,” Tracey Tolbert, a CENA at the Regency at Chene, told People’s World. She pointed out how vast the income inequality is between the workers who do the work and the owners of the facilities who simply profit.
“Imagine you have eight hours to take care of 12 to 18 adults with special needs, all kinds of needs, or whatever. And for every hour that you took care of these people, somebody came and gave you a nickel. Or for every hour, somebody came and gave you a quarter. These are just ridiculously low wages.”
On top of the pay and working conditions, the workers also have to contend with Ciena not honoring their union contract, Tolbert said. “We have made these people rich. We have made Ciena billionaires. They do not honor the contract. They do as they do what they want to. They do whatever they want to and it’s a shame.
“We have a clause in our contract that we are owed an extra four hours—like time and a half. They refuse to honor it. They say it’s a courtesy. But how is it a courtesy if we have a union contract and it’s in black and white?”
Tikesha Williams, also a CENA, said: “We dedicate our time to caring for our residents, but Ciena makes us jump through hoops to care for ourselves. We don’t have adequate supplies and we are constantly short staffed, which takes a huge toll on us.
“Being able to provide for my family—for my granddaughter—matters so much. We deserve to be treated with respect no matter what our job title is.”
SEIU Healthcare Michigan is calling on the public and elected officials to support frontline caregivers as they fight for safe staffing, respect on the job, and high-quality care for Michigan’s most vulnerable residents.
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