About 40 nurses gathered outside Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake on Wednesday, many wearing bright red shirts from their union — the New York State Nurses Association.
Some held bright red signs that read, "Nurses deserve good health benefits."
NYSNA is currently negotiating a new contract with the hospital in Saranac Lake. One of the union's goals is to gain access to the Benefits Fund, which NYSNA says offers nurses "better and more affordable health benefits to nurses" than the hospital's healthcare plan.
Bill Schneider, a nurse at AMC and the union's local bargaining president, had a health scare a few years ago. He worried he had leukemia, so he went to see a doctor at AMC.
"I got my labs done, saw the oncologist, and thankfully I don’t have leukemia, but I did get a $900 lab bill afterwards," Schneider explained.
He's enrolled in the hospital's health insurance plan, but said his labs had to be sent out of network, which led to the $900 bill. On top of the high fees and the high cost of family health plans, Schneider said the nurses at AMC are among the lowest paid in the region.
"So it’s like the one-two punch where, not only is our wage scale the lowest and we have the worst benefits in the North Country, we also live in the most expensive place in the North Country.”
The New York State Nurses Association represents about 180 nurses in Saranac Lake and about 45,000 across the state.
NYSNA nurses at Claxton-Hepburn in Ogdensburg and at the hospital in Elizabethtown recently gained access to the Benefit Fund. It’s also offered to union nurses at Canton-Potsdam hospital, where Aaron O’Neill works as a nurse. He told the crowd of nurses outside AMC that they deserve the same health plan he has.
"I see all sorts of doctors and each time I do so comfortably with a very low co-pay," said O'Neill. "Now I ask you all, what makes me different than you all?”
Adirondack Medical Center is the only union hospital in the North Country that doesn’t offer access to the Benefit Fund.
A spokesperson for Adirondack Health said in a statement that the hospital “remains committed to good-faith negotiations with NYSNA and to reaching a fair agreement that reflects the value our nurses bring to the community, while preserving our health system’s independence and excellence.”
Vicky Davis-Courson traveled to Saranac Lake from Plattsburgh, where she works as a nurse at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital. Union nurses at CVPH have access to the Benefit Fund, but Davis-Courson said the problem in Plattsburgh is low staffing levels.
"At CVPH we are also in the midst of a contract campaign, and I know how hard it is to stand up to your employer and demand what the nurses need to keep ourselves, our families, and our patients safe," said Davis-Courson.
Nurses rallied outside of Adirondack Medical Center for hours on Wednesday, and many people who drove by honked and waved in support.
Schneider, the nurse and bargaining president at Adirondack Medical Center, said he’s proud of the work they do in Saranac Lake, but he believes the hospital needs to offer better benefits to retain and recruit staff.
"If we want to be able to keep attracting new nurses and build our bench, so to speak, we have to be competitive with our benefits and our wages," said Schneider.
On Thursday, a day after the NYSNA nurses picketed outside the hospital, Adirondack Health announced it had negotiated a new contract with another union — the United Food and Commercial Workers.
UFCW represents about 380 staff at AMC, including lab and pharmacy techs, maintenance staff, and nursing assistants. They secured a steady salary increase and gained access to their own union’s health care plan.
“We believe this is a fair contract that recognizes the essential contributions these employees make to our organization and to the patients and communities we serve," Aaron Kramer, Adirondack Health President and CEO, said in a statement.
"Importantly, this contract also demonstrates that Adirondack Health is not opposed to third-party health insurance coverage for our employees. UFCW’s willingness to provide certainty regarding the benefit fund’s total cost to Adirondack Health over the entire contract period gave us the ability to budget around it effectively and responsibly.”