New Study Outlines Path to Safeguard Quality Patient Care and Healthcare Jobs in Lynn

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed two bills on Oct. 23 ordering historic reforms to the Garden State’s long-term care industry. The laws are the culmination of a years-long battle to improve conditions for New Jersey’s long-term care workers and the residents for whom they care. 1199ers have been at the forefront of the struggle, so the day was one of pride and emotion.

After a protracted struggle that spanned over a year and through the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers at NYU Winthrop University Medical Center in Mineola, NY, have their first collective bargaining agreement as members of 1199SEIU.

Cathy Mahar, a first assistant surgery RN at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Buffalo since 1987, grew up with the Golden Rule, and it’s one of the reasons she became a nurse. “I wanted to take care of others, and people who are sick,” she says. Mahar’s parents were her biggest supporters, encouraging her into the profession. She credits her high school ROTC program with encouraging her toward the education and discipline she needed to become a nurse

1199SEIU member Genevieve E. Smith has been named to a new SEIU Healthcare Worker COVID Advisory Committee that will advise the Biden Administration’s COVID Task Force. The Committee will ensure that the experiences and perspectives of healthcare workers are included in the Biden administration’s COVID response: they will make recommendations and virtually meet with Task Force members as they plan the continuing battle against COVID-19.

Registered Nurses New York Presbyterian-Queens in Flushing held an informational picket Nov. 9 to demand that management settle a new contract that protects their healthcare and retirement benefits and provides higher wages.

Today we welcome more than 100 new members at White Plains Hospital into the 1199SEIU family. They are joining hundreds of fellow members in the Hudson Valley, who have already negotiated some of the best pay and benefits in the country.

Workers at Humboldt House, a rehabilitation and nursing center in Buffalo, NY, in October settled a new contract that includes significant wage increases, enlarges the existing 10-year longevity step, and adds an additional longevity step at 30 years of service.

The New York City Labor Chorus has kicked off its rehearsals on Zoom in preparation for performances celebrating its 30th Anniversary. Though no in-person rehearsals are planned until there is a vaccine for COVID19, the Labor Chorus is hard at work on its repertoire and planning a virtual anniversary celebration

1199SEIU members at four Buffalo area nursing homes owned by the McGuire Group last September ratified a new, one-and-a-half year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that includes wage increases of 4%, a first time shift differential for third shift, and increased starting wages for all departments (including additional increases based on years of service)

In the midst of the greatest public health crisis in a century, no group of workers has been more needed and more quickly rose to the challenge than the frontline healthcare workers in hospitals, nursing homes and home care. The country owes you a debt of gratitude.