The Albany County Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (ACCFL) and the Capital District Area Labor Federation (CDALF) have been mobilizing their members and calling upon county legislators to stand with 1199SEIU healthcare workers in the fight against the privatization of the Albany County Nursing Home in New York’s capital city.

Since the first group of workers at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, organized and fought to become 1199 members more than four decades ago in 1972, the health care workers at this Mid-Hudson Valley hospital have taken on many fights to protect their contract and strengthen their union.

Registered nurses in New York’s Capital Region are beginning to receive settlement payouts from a successful class action lawsuit, helping to ensure fair compensation for nurses and safer staffing and higher quality of care for patients.

Hundreds of 1199SEIU nursing home workers from across New York traveled to the state capital in Albany over the last two weeks, appealing to lawmakers to establish a nursing home standard wage. The proposal, which would be a provision in the state budget, sets a standard rate of compensation for nursing home workers and ensures that contracts between managed care companies and employers are sufficient to provide those wages.