Nurses at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica plan one-day strike over staffing concerns

UTICA, N.Y. — Members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) at St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) in Utica have voted to authorize a one-day strike on Sept. 1.

NYSNA’s negotiating team has delivered a 10-day notice to the SEMC administration the for the one-day walkout, NYSNA said in a news release issued Aug. 16.

Nurses at the hospitals have been working night and day without contracts, NYSNA said.

Registered nurses (RNs) at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown have also voted for a one-day walkout on the same day, while nurses at Nathan Littauer Hospital (NLH) in Gloversville voted for a two-day walkout, which will also begin on Sept. 1.

One of the main issues is a staffing “crisis that exists” at all three hospitals. Nurses have raised concerns about “inadequate” staffing of RNs in numerous departments, the union said.

MVHS reaction

The union held a vote last week for the SEMC nurses, asking them to authorize the NYSNA bargaining committee to submit the 10-day notice for a one-day strike, Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) said in a news release, also issued Aug. 16.

 “We believe that the representatives from NYSNA are not working for the benefit of our nurses, but using them as part of a statewide strategy to effect the changes they want. Even with that said, we are very disappointed in the outcome of the union vote, [Monday] night’s negotiation meeting and the notification for a one-day strike,” Scott Perra, president and CEO of MVHS said in the organization’s release. “While we have five additional meetings scheduled with the NYSNA negotiation team between now and Monday, August 29, we are now using our resources to prepare for the strike which will impact SEMC, the entire healthcare system and our community.”

MVHS is “evaluating” its options following the strike notice and how “best” to position the organization in response to the notification, according to Perra.

“In preparation for the strike action, we will have to temporarily reduce services provided at SEMC. We want the community to be assured that we are working with the New York State Department of Health and are implementing the comprehensive plan we have had in place for such an eventuality,” said Perra.

NYSNA has stated that its issues include staffing and economics, MVHS said in its release.

In response, MVHS said SEMC has added 85 new staff RNs over the past 12 months. The current vacancy rate for RN positions is 5.3 percent at SEMC, while RN vacancy in Central New York is 13.6 percent and nationally it is 8.5 percent, MVHS contends.

SEMC administration presented wage proposals to the NYSNA negotiation team in July, which it “did not begin to [address] until the meeting” held Aug. 15.

“We find the NYSNA negotiation team’s lack of engagement in this process, and their use of our nurses’ lives for their own statewide agenda, a highly cynical approach to bargaining. We believe we have put a number of offers forward that would be acceptable to our nurses and their unwillingness to work with us to resolve the issues and agree on a new contract hurts our nurses and our community,” Perra contended.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com