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MARK STEIL: At Oak Hills Living Center in New Ulm, a half dozen picketers carrying strike signs walk back and forth across the main driveway leading to the parking lot. Some drivers signal their support.

[HORN BLARING]

Others ignore the picketers. The strike began July 3, when about 60 members of Teamsters Local 544 walked off the job-- nurses, kitchen workers, housekeepers, residential aides. Union steward Colette Thorson says all but two of the strikers are women.

COLETTE THORSON: A lot of grandmas, a lot of mothers, a lot of single mothers, students.

MARK STEIL: Thorson says the main issue is money. She says strike talk began after the nursing home canceled a scheduled January pay raise.

COLETTE THORSON: Well, I think they had the feeling or the attitude, or it came across to that anyhow as women wouldn't have the audacity to stand up and fight. They'd roll over and play dead.

MARK STEIL: The National Labor Relations Board investigated the pay raise cancellation and other issues and found the nursing home acted illegally. A federal administrative law judge will rule sometime this fall whether the nursing home's actions constitute unfair labor practices.

Nursing home administrator Fred Brumm refused an interview request, but in testimony before the administrative law judge, said he canceled the pay raise because the nursing home faced a financial crisis and could not afford to pay the additional money. He says it lost more than $300,000 in the fiscal year ending last September 30. Union steward Thorson says Oak Hill's financial problems are the result of mismanagement and says workers shouldn't pay the bill.

COLETTE THORSON: They want us to save their home at our expense. If we're willing to come back under his conditions, then we can go back and work. But we can't accept that.

MARK STEIL: The strike at Oak Hills Living Center in New Ulm comes at a time of increasing union activity in nursing homes. Ken Gagala works at the University of Minnesota's Labor Education Service.

KEN GAGALA: Nursing homes, where most of the employees really fit a classical depiction of what we might call a sweatshop, in the sense that wages and benefits are relatively low, and working conditions are hazardous.

MARK STEIL: Gagala says labor groups, including the steelworkers, autoworkers, and teamsters, are looking for new members at nursing homes. He says once a union is in place, though, workers don't always get the economic boost they expect.

KEN GAGALA: Oftentimes, the unions have difficulty in negotiating contracts, which represent a significant improvement in wages and benefits because many of the nursing homes are reliant upon patients or residents who are supported through Medicaid.

MARK STEIL: Gagala says a large portion of a nursing home's revenues are fixed and cannot be changed because Medicaid payments are government regulated. He says even if a nursing home wants to raise wages, most find it difficult to pay for the increase because of the Medicaid revenue limitations.

On the Oak Hills picket line, workers vow they won't back down even though the nursing home is hiring replacement workers. They say management is trying to break the union. They allege two employees were fired last spring because of their union activity. Marcy Moko was a nurse for 14 years at Oak Hills and also a union negotiator. She was suspended last May and later fired, an hour and a half before talks began on a new contract.

MARCY MOKO: I'm sure they thought that I would be put up as an example of what can happen to you if you are a union sympathizer, if you are so vocal in your beliefs. And hopefully that-- with the new contract coming up, that a lot of the other employees would shy away from wanting the union in the facility.

MARK STEIL: Management has made its own allegations against the union, accusing them of illegal picketing and threatening behavior. Nearly lost in the squabble are the Oak Hills residents and their families. Some support the union, others management. But most just wish the strike would end. State health department officials are monitoring the quality of care at Oak Hills. So far, they say, despite the strike, it's met all state standards. This is Mark Steil, Mainstreet Radio.