BUFFALO (WBEN) - As healthcare workers at Mercy Hospital are prepared to strike starting Friday morning, Catholic Health CEO Mark Sullivan is hopeful a deal will be reached by Thursday night.
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"Catholic Health remains committed to the associates throughout our system, in particular, right now through this bargaining that we're going through with CWA," said Sullivan during a virtual press conference Thursday afternoon. "We remain at the table until we have a deal."
Sullivan said Catholic Health is focused on three elements:
-Providing "fair and competitive market wages"
-Mechanism in place to drive toward increased staffing
-Ensure benefits for associates
If these are the goals of Catholic Health, then why hasn't a deal been reached yet?
"We are committed to staffing; we're committed to hearing the proposals on health insurance, and we're committed to hearing the proposals around wages," he continued. "As I said, we see eye-to-eye on those three areas, but it's a matter of figuring out what that balance is between equity with the associates and equity and viability for the future of Catholic Health."
Union representatives also spoke about the state of negotiations as of Thursday afternoon:
CWA representatives Debora Hayes and Jackie Ettipio are holding out hope an agreement will be reached before 6 a.m. Friday but said the sides are still far off.
"We are definitely getting closer on the wage issues," Hayes said. "Some of the sticking points are our staffing proposal. We're proposing ratios for direct caregivers and for folks in our ancillary departments as well. We're trying to work towards correcting the work conditions our members are experiencing."
Specifically, Hayes said the union wants an equal pay compared to the other nurses in the Catholic Health system.
Catholic Health on Thursday publicly shared highlights from their Wednesday night proposal which includes more than $240 million in contracts for nurses and other employees in the union. It would include an average wage increases of 4.4% for nurses and other raises for technical and clerical workers. Catholic Health also says it will increase its staffing to 10% above the average daily at Kenmore Mercy and Mercy Hospital, including 230 new jobs in nursing, imaging, and service areas.
"We will work all the way up to 6 a.m.," Hayes said. "The only way we will stop arguing is if it's clear an agreement can't be reached and it doesn't make sense for us to be here any longer. Right now we know we have a lot of work to do."