Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - After months of negotiations between Kaleida Health and healthcare workers represented by CWA Local 1168 and 1199SEIU, a tentative agreement was reached on a new three-year contract early Monday morning.
While the complete details of the new agreement reached were not released, it will cover more than 6,300 union healthcare workers at hospitals across Buffalo and Western New York, including Buffalo General Medical Center, Oishei Children's Hospital, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, HighPointe on Michigan, DeGraff Medical Park and various community-based clinics.
"I believe we negotiated a historic agreement here that will put us in a position to recruit and retain healthcare workers of all job titles - registered nurses, PCAs, certified medical assistants. No concessions," said CWA Local 1168 President Cori Gambini on Monday. "We had a platform that we were going by, as you can see here with our priorities, increased pension staffing, no concessions, wages and benefits, respect and dignity. And we reached every single one of those goals."
"This is definitely a historic agreement," added 1199SEIU Vice President Jim Scordato. "This is my fifth, I know Cori has done more of the Kaleida contracts than I have, but for me, this is definitely the best contract that we're gonna be bringing back to our members. This is going to definitely lead the way in what healthcare is hopefully going to be based on moving forward. We'll get to, hopefully, be able to pull new people into the system, we have a lot of openings that were current prior to going into bargaining. We were able to negotiate over 500 new positions in this agreement, so that definitely is a historic agreement."
While nurses and other professional healthcare workers at Kaleida Health represented by both CWA Local 1168 and 1199SEIU voted earlier in September to authorize a strike if no agreement could be reached, it remained the goal of union leaders and other members of the bargaining committee to not go on strike at all costs.
"I think we have well over 120, 130 tentative agreements within this contract," Scordato said. "Our goal was always to get an agreement. Our goal was never to go on strike, and Kaleida heard that, people in the community heard that, our local leaders all heard that because we are in constant contact with them, having meetings with them. And again, I think putting this agreement together will hopefully, and fundamentally change healthcare in our area, and hopefully now drive other healthcare institutions to step up and do the right things for their employees and our members."
Scordato also commends Kaleida Health for the professional working relationship they have with the unions, and believes that the healthcare network is going in the right direction with not only the new contract, but also the leaders now in place.
The new deal struck early Monday morning will hopefully come up for a ratification vote from members of the unions over the next couple of weeks. It is a contract that members of the bargaining committee will definitely be recommending to workers to ratify and move forward with.
"We're gonna work hard to get this contract ratified, which is making sure our members understand all the details that are in this contract," Gambini said. "The plan is after this, we're going to sit with Kaleida and do some final signatures on papers. We have teams of people that are working to do, kind of like a face sheet of the big highlights on the agreement and get that to our members sometime today. And then our members will have access to all our tentative agreements to view, and schedule a ratification vote date."
In addition to the union leaders recommending this contract to workers, others on the bargaining committee are going to recommend this contract to be ratified, as well.
"I'm excited to bring it back to the members. I think that I'm very proud of the work that we did here. I think I'm proud of the work that's gonna go forward for the community, as well," said Johnine Gunsaleus, a registered nurse an Oishei Children's Hospital and one of the bargaining committee members. "We have fought long and hard to have ratios in the hospitals, to be able to get good patient care, and to be proud to walk out the door and say we did the best job we could, and I think we created the stepping stone to get there. I can't wait for the members to see the work we've done, and we've worked so hard on it. It's been a long, long, six months."
The one talking point in negotiations that the workers and bargaining committee members were happy to get a better grasp on was staffing issues that have plagued the healthcare industry, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Staffing and dignity and respect, they go hand-in-hand. You've got to go in and do a job, and you've got to respected and understand that the tools that you need to do that job, if you're unwilling to give it, then there's a problem. I feel like we're now at the point where we have something that they're listening, and they came to terms with some stuff," said Kimberly Kornowski, a registered nurse and bargaining committee member from Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.
Hear more from Monday's press conference with healthcare workers and union leaders in the player below: