Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Healthcare workers represented by CWA Local 1168 and 1199SEIU provided an update Thursday on the latest contract talks with Kaleida Health, Western New York's largest healthcare employer.
As talks to agree on a new labor contract have become more divisive in the recent days and weeks, the joint negotiating committee has called for a strike authorization vote of the union membership. This after leadership with the unions and Kaleida recently agreed to a third contract extension for caregivers until Friday at 11:59 p.m.
"Since March 4, we have been engaged in negotiations with Kaleida Health. We've made progress in many areas, but our key concerns are still unresolved," said Cori Gambini, president of CWA Local 1168. "We have yet to see the essential actions from Kaleida at the bargaining table that are crucial for our members. We take great pride in the groundbreaking agreement we achieved in 2022, marking the first time we successfully negotiated staffing ratios within our collective bargaining agreement, as well as the New York State staffing law that took effect in January of 2023. We were hopeful and excited that we could improve the working conditions of our members, and provide improved quality care to the community when they seek medical care at Kaleida Health. Although we have made progress, we still have a way to go."
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Nearly 8,000 workers are demanding improvements in benefits and wages that would recruit and retain more staff to care for patients at Kaleida Health's hospitals, nursing homes and clinics across Western New York. Also included in the demands for improvements are increased safety protections, job security, as well as dignity and respect.
"Staff members frequently work with an inadequate number of staff, like many hospitals across New York State, including our local facilities. We have submitted thousands of complaints that prompted visits from the Department of Health. Kaleida then had to submit a plan of correction to the state, yet we continue to operate short staffed in many areas, and we continue to file the complaints. We must enforce the staffing provisions in our contract, and New York State must also uphold the law," Gambini said.
"Our 2022 agreement is not a one-time achievement. It serves as a foundation that we must build upon. For the sake of our patients and our members, we must continue to advocate for enforcement and improvements. The best chance we have to accomplish this is during contract negotiations."
The strike authorization vote will be held over three days on July 8, 9, and 10. The voting for July 8 and 9 goes from 6 a.m.-to-9 p.m. at the Wyndham Garden in Buffalo, right across from the Buffalo General Medical Campus. The vote on July 10 will be at 6 a.m.-to-9 p.m. at CWA Local 1168 on Sweet Home Road in Amherst.
If the union members vote in favor of strike authorization, it will give the bargaining committee the power at the bargaining table to call a strike when needed. It does not mean that once a strike vote is approved that Kaleida healthcare workers will be put out on strike.
The strike authorization vote comes at a time when Congressional Republicans are looking to cut vital Medicaid funding that's critical to hospitals, nursing homes, and homecare. More recently, President and CEO of Kaleida Health, Don Boyd stated that safety net hospitals, like Oishei Children’s, could lose $65 million in Medicaid funding per year.
"These will devastate hospitals, including rural hospitals, said Cheryl Marino, organizer with 1199SEIU. "The Brooks Memorials, the Bertrand Chaffees, even Niagara Falls Memorial have the ability to lose their services, and to not have the new hospital built at Brooks. So we are aware of it. It's an unfortunate set of circumstances, and we are here negotiating during these tough times to make sure that our patients and our community are well taken care of. But people need to get out there and make their voices heard, that these Medicaid cuts cannot go through."
Members of the negotiating committee have seen firsthand the toll some of the current working conditions caregivers are facing is taking on staff at local facilities.
"We are losing great nurses because the current system isn't adequate to support their progress," said Mary Kolerski, RN and Clinical Nurse Educator at Buffalo General Medical Center. "This contract fight is about fixing that. It's about creating a work environment that supports training, that supports the nurse, and that retains the caregivers that we so desperately need in our community to take care of patients.
"I'm voting yes to authorize a strike if needed, because the future of nursing depends on what we do right now, and I believe we can do better together."
Area director with CWA, Debbie Hayes, says both unions are committed to working hard to get an agreement done with Kaleida before the deadline. She feels the ability to reach an agreement is largely in Kaleida's ballpark right now, and if union leaders see movement on some of the major areas of concern, they'll know there's room for movement as well.
"I think Kaleida looks at our 2022 negotiations as the set of talks that got the job done. But staffing is very static. Things change - our patients, volumes, acuity - and so we need to be continuously talking and improving, and looking at the numbers," said Hayes on Thursday. "And truthfully, the biggest issue is, what is the consequence if they don't meet the staffing ratios? It's one thing to have them written in a book, and it's another thing to have the ratios met on the floor. It's still occurring too frequently where the ratios are not being met, and our members are working in circumstances that they just consider to be unsafe."