Twenty-five hundred 1199SEIU caregivers at New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) celebrated a major victory together with NYSNA nurses on June 25 when they reached tentative agreements for new union contracts. About 200 caregivers at the Department of Health (DOH), The Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are also covered under the 1199 agreement.

These agreements give the caregivers and nurses access to child and elder care funds and training and upgrading funds, allowing them to care for their families and patients while advancing their careers. The child and elder care funds reflect the reality of the 24-hour-a-day, female-dominated healthcare workforce, in which healthcare workers are often the primary caregivers at home for children and elderly family members. Now, all city caregivers and nurses will have more options for affordable care for loved ones.

Both tentative agreements also include retroactive payments and across-the-board wage increases.

1199SEIU caregivers and NYSNA nurses at HHC have worked for more than four years without a contract and began negotiations under the Bloomberg administration more than five years ago. They applaud Mayor de Blasio’s administration for transforming the way the city negotiates with public workers, allowing for a productive dialogue which will help address the destructive inequality gap that has been growing for too long.