**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TODAY APRIL 20, AT 5 PM**

Contact: Diana Moreno | press@nysna.org| 917-327-2302
Jennifer Valentin-Polanco | press@nysna.org| 716-445-6319

NYSNA Nurses to Hold Informational Picket on Staffing and Services Crisis in North Country

NYSNA nurses from St. Lawrence Health System and community and labor allies will picket outside Massena Hospital to demand a fair contract as a long-term solution to the alarming decline of nurses in the North Country

Massena, N.Y.– NYSNA members from Massena Hospital, with support from nurses at Canton-Potsdam and Gouverneur Hospitals, will hold an informational picket on Thursday. Nurses call on hospital administrators to fully address chronic understaffing and to bargain a fair contract that invests in the community's nurses and protects essential healthcare services.

After hosting a successful community town hall meeting last week to call attention to the root causes of the nursing shortage in the region, nurses are bringing their message directly to hospital administrators. While they’ve made important inroads on improving wages and benefits, hospital management is refusing to have any meaningful conversation about safe staffing and enforcement. Nurses demand a fair contract that ensures safe staffing levels to provide quality patient care in the North Country.

WHO: NYSNA nurses, Northeast Central Labor Council president Angela Trombley; Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence Central Labor Council leaders, and additional labor and community allies.
WHAT: Informational Picket on Staffing and Services Crisis in North Country
WHERE: Massena Hospital, 1 Hospital Dr, Massena, NY 13662
WHEN: Thursday, April 20 from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.   

**Press conference at 5 p.m.**

VISUALS: Dozens of nurses holding signs, marching and chanting. Nurses and other speakers will describe conditions in the hospital and detail the fight for a fair contract.

“I was born here, I have children here, I've built a life here, and I want to stay here. I wish St. Lawrence would invest in nurses the way we have invested in our community,” said Casey Paquin, RN.  “This is personal to us; this is our friends and family's community hospitals. If we don't make them better, our families suffer.”

“It is time for St. Lawrence Health to settle a contract that allows nurses to practice safely and with the attention every patient deserves,” said Amanda Murray, RN. “Having working conditions and staffing ratios that are safe for patients is the key to recruiting and retaining nurses in the North Country. We need safe staffing standards and enforcement in our contract for the sake of our patients and our community.”