Capital Region nurses held a town hall meeting this week to call attention to what they say is Albany Medical Center’s refusal to address a staffing crisis.
After several failed "bargaining sessions," Albany Medical Center management and the New York State Nurses Association remain deadlocked over contract negotiations. The nurses have been without one for more than six months. They were joined by labor activists and elected officials at the Albany Black Chamber of Commerce to voice their concerns.
ICU nurse Jen Bejo is president of the local bargaining unit at Albany Med and a member of the bargaining committee. She's been with the hospital for 19 years. Bejo says the standoff has become a regional public health issue, and nurses will not be silenced.
"We are continuously prevented to exercise our federal right as a union, all because we refuse to back down from fighting for what is right," said Bejo. "We all know that patients don't come to Albany Med for the administrators. They come to the hospital for the people in this room. And these are the nurses right here in this room, nurses who are undervalued, underpaid, undermined, but are all too willing to shed their time, their lives, their sweat, their blood, their tears, for the sake of the patients that we all serve."
The nurses have held periodic pickets, rallies and town halls for years to bring attention to staffing levels.
109th district state Assemblymember Gabriella Romero says Albany Med continues to deny the truth.
"Instead of addressing the issue head on, the hospital is more focused on spending about $80 million on travel nurses, many of whom are paid twice as much as our dedicated staff nurses."
Romero, a Democrat, is calling on the hospital to show more transparency and respect its nurses. Margaret Franks, a registered nurse at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, claims many hospitals value profits over human life.
"The nursing profession used to be able to go in and leave their jobs with a clear conscience, knowing that they did what they could do to the best of their ability that day, and that they had the backing of their leadership. We can't say that anymore," Franks said.
A spokesperson for Vassar tells WAMC the hospital's top priority is delivering high-quality, compassionate care to patients while supporting its dedicated nurses and staff. "We recognize the challenges facing healthcare professionals nationwide."
Albany Med responded to request for comment via email, saying in part that the hospital is safely staffed, and presenting a letter written in December by then-Assemblymember Pat Fahy of the 109th district and Jon McDonald of the 108th, urging the union to "thoroughly consider the proposal on the table and to expeditiously resolve matters at hand." That letter was written a week after NYSNA rejected what the hospital had called its "last and best" contract offer, which would have come with retroactive pay back to August 1st.
Hospital President and CEO Dr. Dennis McKenna vows he won't budge on his stance Albany Med continue as an "open shop," in the face of NYSNA's demands that all nurses be automatically enrolled in the union.
The two sides will meet once again at the bargaining table on February 24.
