The state of Connecticut has implemented its emergency operations protocol in anticipation of a possible nursing home strike this week, top members of Gov. Lamont’s administration said Tuesday evening.

Approximately 3,400 unionized workers at 33 facilities plan to walk off the job on Friday morning. The SEIU 1199NE union is demanding the average wage rise to $20 an hour, plus they want added staffing and benefit concessions.

Acting Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford says she is confident all 33 nursing homes will have enough licensed replacement workers. Gifford says DPH has already approved about two-thirds of the facilities’ contingency plans. DPH staff will be on-site to monitor replacement workers, she says.

Gifford says moving residents to another nursing home is “a last resort.” If it’s necessary, facilities are required to notify families.

Prospects for avoiding a strike appear dimmer. Tuesday afternoon, the 1199NE union dismissed an offer Gov. Lamont made to pump $280 million into nursing homes, with much of the money earmarked specifically for employee raises. 

In statement, the union said: “The governor’s proposal of a yearly 4.5% wage increase for the next two years would not be sufficient to establish a $20 per hour minimum in the union contracts for certified nursing assistants. For hundreds of housekeeping, dietary and laundry support workers, the proposed raise would not even keep up with the state’s minimum wage laws.”

In response, Lamont’s chief of staff Paul Mounds said the state had made its “best and final offer.”

If no deal is reached, the union is threatening a strike at an additional six nursing homes next week. That would bring the total number of picketing workers to four thousand.