Nursing homes in which staff are members of a labor union were associated with a 10.8 percent lower resident COVID-19 death rate and a 6.8 percent lower staff COVID-19 death rate compared to nonunion nursing homes, a study published April 20 in Health Affairs found.
Researchers used federal data on resident COVID-19 mortality rates from June 8, 2020, to March 21. They also used data on nursing home-level union status from the Service Employees International Union for the same duration.