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CWA JOINS NY GOV. CUOMO FOR SAFE STAFFING SIGNING CEREMONY

CWA Local 1104's Lavita Payton and 1180's Helen S. Jarrett joined members of the New York State Nurses Association, 1199SEIU, and CWA D1 Political Director Bob Master for a ceremony with New York Governor Cuomo on June 24th to witness the signing of our historic Safe Staffing legislation!

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Photo courtesy of NYSNA/Dave Sanders

CWAers in New York have been fighting for legislation to make our hospitals and nursing homes safer for many years. We made serious progress this year with the passage of this package of Safe Staffing legislation that will:

  • Require hospitals to create staffing committees made up of worker representatives and management.

  • Make staffing plans enforceable by the Department of Health.

  • Direct the Department of Health to mandate staffing ratios in intensive and critical care units.

  • Require staffing data to routinely be made publicly available to all on the Department’s website.

  • Allow the DOH to investigate and impose stiff civil penalties against hospitals that fail to 1) form a staffing committee and create a staffing plan and 2) resolve violations of their plan.

  • Require 3.5 hours of direct patient care in nursing homes, per resident, per day.

We also heard from the Governor about designs for a monument being built in NYC to honor essential workers - planned in part by CWA D1 VP Dennis Trainor! Click here to learn more about the upcoming monument.