Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Workers at Kaleida Health facilities will vote on whether or not to strike as a tug of war between nearly 8,000 workers and the healthcare provider reached a stalemate.
Unions 1199SEIU and CWA, which represent workers at several local hospitals - Oishei Children's, Buffalo General, Millard Fillmore, DeGraff Medical Park and various clinics across Western New York - announced Tuesday night that a third short-term contract extension has been reached. The latest extension expires this Friday at 11:59 p.m.
A strike vote will be held July 8-10 if no deal is reached before then.
"We bargained in good faith with Kaleida for over four months, but Kaleida’s lack of recognition of our staffing proposals and economic package has led us to this strike authorization vote," said Cori Gambini, President of CWA Local 1168 in a statement Tuesday night.
In a June 16 interview with WBEN, the CWA's Debbie Hayes acknowledged the possibility of a strike, but noted there's always hesitancy to do so among healthcare workers.
"We try very hard not to go there because of the impact it has on our patients and the community," Hayes said. "We don't want to drag this out, we want to get to an agreement, but if we can't reach an agreement then we have to be thinking about next steps."
Kaleida Heath issued the following statement regarding negotiations with healthcare workers on Wednesday:
“Kaleida Health continues to bargain in good faith and remains focused on getting language to allow some flexibility to ensure safe, predictable staffing and creating a healthy work environment where everyone feels they are treated with dignity and respect. We are committed to do all that we can to achieve a fair contract that rewards our current employees, helps attract new staff, and puts Kaleida Health in a strong position going forward.”
Initial negotiations started March 4. Among the nearly 8,000 workers impacted by the negotiations are nurses, clinicians, tech employees, office personnel and maintenance employees.