BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - The union at Mercy Hospital continues to negotiate a new labor contract with Catholic Health leadership, but there appears to be no clear end in sight as picketers continue demonstrating outside the hospital for a sixth straight day.
More than 2,200 nurses and other hospital employees are fighting for an increase in wages, increased staffing, and other hospital resources.
Some of the lowest paid workers include those who are cleaners.
"I've been working at Mercy for three-and-a-half years," Diane Peach, an environmental services workers at the hospital, said. "I don't even make $14 an hour. I work cleaning OR rooms and stuff like that where there's blood and guts and stuff. It's just unfair for me to be a good worker that I have been over the last three years and not getting the wages I have. I get my paycheck and I can only pay one bill and not have enough for myself."
CWA Local 1133 and Catholic Health leadership are negotiating a contract at the Gateway Building in Hamburg. Union officials told reporters Tuesday they do not expect a contract to be finalized Wednesday as there still remains questions about staffing.
Picketers were joined Wednesday by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who told WBEN she supports nurses.
"If anybody has had anybody in the hospital, you know how valuable nurses are," Stokes said. "There's no question there's a staffing shortage. There's a staffing shortage here and at other hospitals in Western New York. If you're driving on the 33, you'll see ECMC has a big sign up that says 'We're hiring'. Everybody's hiring because there is a staffing shortage. Some of that is because of COVID but some of that is because the policies we set up in our society that doesn't create the bench in enough numbers when people begin to retire or transition."
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Stokes said there's been a failure among leaders in the community to ensure there are workers to replace those who retire or leave.
"You can't ask people to work two shifts just because there's nobody else there to work," she said. "We've got to figure out some others ways to do that. It's not fair to them or their families."