Healthcare Workers to Arnot Ogden Medical Center: DO BETTER!

​On June 12th frontline healthcare workers, members of CWA Local 1111, rallied outside of Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, NY to send a clear (and loud) message to hospital management: Arnot Ogden must do better!

In the midst of bargaining their new contract, 1111 members have faced tough conditions in the workplace, both from lack of adequate staffing and from management pushback when voicing concerns. The hospital has not only refused to prioritize staffing at the bargaining table but has also made it harder for workers to enforce the 2021 New York State Clinical Staffing Committees law, designed to improve staffing conditions, and unilaterally taken control of the hospital’s Clinical Staffing Committee - a committee that, by state law, is required to be jointly run by labor and management.

But CWAers are not backing down and let the hospital know that they’re ready to fight until they get the safe and healthy workplace that they, and their patients, deserve.

“Today I stand before you with both a heavy heart and a burning determination to address the extremely difficult working conditions of the frontline health care workers due to severe understaffing,” said Local 1111 member Tasha Lamb, an ICU Unit Clerk. “It puts an unbearable strain on us as workers. It pushes us to our limits and makes it harder and harder for us to deliver the quality care our patients deserve.”

​Watch video of the rally here, and read more here.