Nathan Littauer Nurses Fight to Protect Patient Care in Fulton County
For months, NYSNA nurses at Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville have been fighting for a fair contract that will allow them to provide the best care possible for their patients and their community. As the only hospital in rural Fulton County, Nathan Littauer provides critical services to the community; but routine understaffing and subpar wages and benefits have made it difficult to retain enough nurses to meet the community’s needs and provide the safe, quality patient care that Fulton County residents deserve.
On Friday, April 11, nurses marched on the boss, calling on management to settle the fair contract that both nurses and patients deserve. Nurses delivered notice to the CEO of their intention to hold an informational picket in the coming weeks if they failed to settle a new contract before then. Chief among nurses’ concerns are safe staffing standards, a real plan to recruit and retain nurses, and respectful wages and benefits.
Less than a week after marching on the boss and delivering their informational picket notice, nurses held a speak-out to encourage management to return to the table to settle a fair contract before their info-picket date. Labor and community allies joined the speak-out, emphasizing the need to keep qualified, experienced nurses at the bedside in Fulton County.
After failing to see any movement from management, nurses held the info- picket on Thursday, April 24, once again calling on their employer to return to the bargaining table, stop playing games with patient care, and settle a fair contract. Elected officials, labor, and community allies, including Assembly Member Phil Steck; Seth Cohen, Capital District Area Labor Federation; Rev. Peter Cook, NYS Council of Churches; Rev. West McNeill, NYS Labor-Religion Coalition; and Mike Panzarino, CWA 1118 joined nurses.
At the picket, NYSNA nurses and their allies spoke about the critical role that Nathan Littauer plays in their community and demanded that management invest in safe, quality patient care. Wendy Bowie, RN, said, “I was born in this hospital and grew up in this community. This community is important to me and delivering its babies is a really special thing. But I’m worried about the future of this hospital and the kind of care future mothers will receive when hospital management so obviously disregards the nurses that care for them. We want to be able to give the best care possible, but we can’t do that when we don’t have enough nurses on staff.”
The hospital can certainly afford to invest more resources into providing the care that Fulton County residents deserve. In 2023, Nathan Littauer CEO Sean Fadale made over $740,000, an increase of 32% from 2022.
Despite the hospital’s hesitancy to return to the bargaining table, nurses in Gloversville remain optimistic. They know that nurses are the experts in patient care and are committed to ensuring that everyone in their community has access to safe, quality patient care. They won’t stop fighting until that’s a reality, because they know that when nurses fight, we win!
If you haven’t already, show your support for Nathan Littauer nurses by signing their petition.