A yearlong back and forth over contract negotiations between Albany Medical Center and the New York State Nurses Association is coming to an end.
Albany Medical Center nurses represented by NYSNA voted this week to approve a new four-year labor contract that includes wage increases and enhanced benefits.
Jamie Alexanian, a registered nurse at Albany Med and a NYSNA member, says the new contract is exciting.
“We were relying on travel nurses for way too long, and this contract, I believe will entice nurses to come work here and to stay here, which is the most important,” Alexanian said.
The contract’s approval comes after Albany Med put forward what Albany Med Health System President and CEO Dr. Dennis McKenna called the hospital’s “last, best and final offer” in December. NYSNA nurses rejected that offer.
McKenna said Wednesday the new contract is the culmination of negotiations over the last eight months since the offer was put on the table.
“At the time I believe the contract we put in place was a fair one, its one that our nurses wanted there was obviously still some room for both sides to come together and it took the last eight months to do that,” McKenna said.
McKenna says the new contract will increase the starting rate of pay from $33 to $40 an hour as well as increase current nurses’ pay by at least 13 percent.
The approval follows a state Department of Health Report released in February that found 480 staffing violations at Albany Med, including 32 in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, during a six-month period between October 2023 and April 2024. That report described the violations as failure to “assign personnel to each patient care unit in accordance with their adopted clinical staffing plans.”
McKenna says the hospital will continue to follow the DOH-approved staffing plan developed by the Clinical Staffing Committee after that report was released.
“It’s the same as we had yesterday and it’s the same as we will have tomorrow,” McKenna said.
Alexanian is confident the new contract will attract new nurses to the hospital, therefore alleviating what she calls a “staffing crisis.”
“We can definitely recruit nurses now, so it seems to me that if we are able to hire the nurses that we have lost in the past few years, if we are able to hire new ones, then yes it should make a huge impact on the staffing crisis,” Alexanian said.
The contract also stipulates that current nurses and those with active employment offers prior to Wednesday aren’t required to be union members.
However, new nurses who apply after Wednesday will pay NYSNA dues for at least their first four months of employment.
McKenna had previously opposed requiring nurses to pay union dues, maintaining that Albany Med should continue as an "open shop."
Alexanian says the four-month compromise will give new nurses the chance to experience what its like to be a part of the union.
“And if they don’t want to, they can opt out. So, it really seems like its going to be a great path forward for us,” Alexanian said.
The contract is retroactive, meaning the past year counts as one year of the contract. The new agreement will run through July 2028 and, according to NYSNA, covers about 1,600 nurses.
