CWAers Push for Safe Staffing Legislation

CWA healthcare workers are taking action to guarantee hospitals and nursing homes have the staffing they need for quality care. The fact is that nurses are so overburdened that they are physically unable to give each patient the care they need.

This week, members are pushing New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to bring the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act (A. 1548) to a floor vote.

We’re making sure legislators hear from us. CWAers are calling Assembly members about the unsafe staffing situations they face in their hospitals everyday and imploring them to take action.

Research confirms what our members know from experience: safe staffing levels save lives. When there aren’t enough nurses to care for our loved ones, chances of preventable death, hospital acquired infections, and adverse outcomes increase. In fact, the odds of patient death increases by 7% for each additional patient a nurse must take on at one time (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2002).

“There are so many times I try to help other nurses with patients who are more acutely ill than my own when we are so short staffed. I end up neglecting my own patients.”
- RN and CWA member.

Read more stories from members at NYStaffingSavesLives.org

CWA is pushing out a radio ad, also sponsored by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), featuring a nurse calling for the passage of the bill. "My training and experience tell me that the more time I spend with a patient, the more likely they'll survive and heal," the ad's narrator says. "Studies back this up. But sometimes I have more patients than I can safely care for." Listen to the ad here.

This issue isn’t just affecting CWA members. NYSA members are ready to strike if their demands for safe staffing levels are not met. They have not yet issued the 10-day notice, but it may happen this week and set up what would be the largest-ever nurses strike in New York City.

This week is pivotal. What happens in these negotiations and on this Assembly floor vote may impact our contract negotiations.  

Want to take action? Sign the petition to put patients before profits at NY hospitals.