NEW YORK NURSE: June 2007
by Mark Genovese
Registered nurses from five labor unions gathered at the State Capitol on May 22 to call for the passage of bills to ban mandatory overtime and ensure safe staffing.
NYSNA members were joined by RNs from the Nurse Alliance of 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East; New York State United Teachers (NYSUT); the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF); and the Communication Workers of America (CWA).
The theme for the rally was, “Save NY nurses: The life you save may be your own.” To help emphasize the unifying nature of the event, the rally’s 500-plus participants all wore teal t-shirts with the rally theme.
“Today we come together as nurses, where our agenda is about nurses and the abuses we face every day when we walk into our facilities,” said Barbara Crane, president of NYSNA’s Delegate Assembly. “Regardless of the union you represent, today we have come to the State Capitol to deliver the same loud, clear, and unified message to our state legislators: ‘You must have the courage to end this healthcare crisis.’”
Crane noted that RNs at her hospital, St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, went on strike from November 2001 to March 2002 over these same issues. After a difficult 104 days, they won a contract that required unit-by-unit staffing ratios and elimination of mandatory overtime. But, she pointed out, this was “only a partial solution, and a temporary one at that… the best and only long-term solution to these problems is to make them the law of the land.”
Speakers emphasized that strong union contracts need the support of strong state laws. They advocated that nurses call their local legislators and encourage them to support two bills: A1898/S125, which would prohibit mandatory overtime; and A6119/S1551, which would define safe patient-to-nurse ratios.
The overtime bill was reported out of the State Senate Labor Committee the day before the rally. It was on the Senate’s calendar as this edition of New York Nurse went to press.