CWA Healthcare Workers Begin Battle at the Bargaining Table

CWA healthcare members in upstate New York kicked off bargaining last week for two contracts—one with Kaleida Health and one with Catholic Healthcare System.

CWA Local 1168 and 1199SEIU represent approximately 8,000 workers at Kaleida. Workers provide care and services to hundreds of thousands of patients every year.

“Our members are the backbone of the system that provides all levels of care from primary care to women’s healthcare services to highly specialized and complex treatment for the most serious medical conditions,” said CWA New England Area Director Debbie Hayes. CWA workers have a 45-year history of bargaining with the company.

In 2021, CWA members at Catholic Healthcare won a groundbreaking contract after a powerful five-week strike. Now 2,500 members of CWA Locals 1168 and 1133 are back at the table. Earlier this week, violence struck the Emergency Department at Catholic Healthcare’s Mercy Hospital when a patient shot himself. CWA members and leaders are calling for stronger protections for workers, including bulletproof glass in public-facing areas and metal detectors installed in public entryways.

At the top of workers’ concerns at both Kaleida and Catholic Health are returning to safe staffing levels, securing competitive wages and benefits, job security, and health and safety of workers. Poor staffing levels contribute to higher stress for workers, less time to care for patients, and longer waits for care. CWA submitted a complaint to New York state regulators last month detailing more than 16,500 staffing violations at western New York hospitals.

CWA Local 1126 members at Mohawk Valley Health System recently ratified a contract that will provide wage increases amounting to 7.5% over the first year and a switch from seniority determined by hours worked to a more traditional “date of hire” seniority system.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.