Sierra Hills employees strike for safer conditions to live and work

Sierra Hills employees strike for safer conditions to live and work 
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne, WY; by Noah Zahn; 12/26/24 
Employees at Sierra Hills Assisted Living protested Thursday outside the facility after Edgewood Healthcare, which owns Sierra Hills, has refused to budge in negotiations for safer working conditions for employees and residents after more than 10 months of negotiation. “We did include many things in our contract proposal that we feel will really benefit the residents,” said Taylor Ewig, who has been a CNA at Sierra Hills for around 10 years. ... There are currently between 70 and 80 residents at the facility and around eight under hospice care. Ewig and other CNAs participating in the strike said that many of the Sierra Hills residents are supportive of the strike. The issues began at the facility when Sierra Hills implemented a hospice care service a few years ago, shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. ... The company hires hospice nurses who are only on the facility about two hours per week, according to Sierra Hills staff. The rest of that time, the burden of care for the resident falls to the staffed CNAs and RNs.