News

CWAers Keep Up the Fight for Safe Staffing in Our Healthcare Centers

CWA Refuses to Let Up on Staffing Complaint Submissions at NYS Hospitals

On March 5, CWA District 1 submitted over 2,700 staffing complaints to the Department of Health from members at Catholic Health System in Buffalo, building on the incredible momentum we generated back in November when we submitted nearly 8,000 complaints at three CWA hospitals in New York–Arnot Ogden in Elmira, Kaleida Health in Buffalo, and New York Presbyterian in Manhattan. The filing in November caused quite a rumble, and has ultimately resulted in multiple investigations into our hospitals by the Department of Health–in fact, DOH Investigators have now investigated four of our hospitals as a result of our staffing complaints.

This has already been grabbing attention in the press:

Staffing complaints are routinely submitted by workers flagging violations of the 2021 Clinical Staffing Committees law, which CWA helped write and pass. Every hospital in New York must maintain staffing ratios for every unit and shift determined by a joint labor/management committee - but in just over a year of enactment, it’s become clear that the only way this law will be enforced is if workers step up to make it happen, and CWA members throughout New York have been doing just that.
 

1133 Staffing Training

More than 50 members of CWA Local 1133 trained earlier this month to take on the role of Staffing Captain at their facilities in order to help enforce the Clinical Staffing Committees law and make sure that their coworkers know how to file staffing complaints when needed. During the training, members discussed our collective history and the fight for safe staffing, as well as the wider fight for workers’ rights by union members across every industry, went over Clinical Staffing Law in depth, and learned effective strategies for mobilizing their coworkers to join the fight.