New York: CWA, Other Healthcare Unions to NY Department of Health: DO YOUR JOB!

CWA members joined hundreds of other union healthcare workers to rally at the Capitol in Albany last week to demand the staffing levels they need to do their jobs effectively, highlighting the lack of oversight and enforcement by the Department of Health on the Clinical Staffing Committees Law that CWA helped write and pass in 2021.

On May 13th, CWA members stood alongside members of the New York State Nurses Association, 1199SEIU, the Public Employees Federation, the New York State United Teachers, the United Federation of Teachers, and dozens of lawmakers and community supporters to highlight the thousands of staffing violation complaints that healthcare workers have submitted over the past year that have gone unfixed.

“It’s truly a disgrace to witness our patients not receiving the care they deserve because hospitals and our healthcare systems fail to prioritize safe staffing,” said Lavita Payton, a Registered Nurse and member of CWA Local 1104. “They’re putting profits over quality and safety. And we’re here to change that!”

The Clinical Staffing Committees Law was a compromise bill passed in 2021 that requires every hospital in the state to form joint labor/management committees tasked with creating staffing plans for every unit and shift in the hospital. These plans must be followed by the hospital, enforced by the DOH—but so far, the DOH has been largely absent from the enforcement while our members have flagged violations countless times.