NYSNA Nurses at Nathan Littauer Hospital Speak Out and Demand Management Settle a Fair Contract to Ensure Safe Patient Care
For immediate release: Thurs., April 17, 2025
Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Joseph Celestin | press@nysna.org | 518 776-8337
NYSNA NURSES AT NATHAN LITTAUER HOSPITAL SPEAK OUT AND DEMAND MANAGEMENT SETTLE A FAIR CONTRACT TO ENSURE SAFE PATIENT CARE
Nurses call for a contract with enforceable safe staffing standards, a plan to recruit and retain nurses, and respectful wages and benefits.
Gloversville, N.Y. - On Thursday, April 17, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses at Nathan Littauer Hospital held a speak-out to demand that management settle a fair contract with safe staffing and a real plan to recruit and retain nurses for safe patient care. Nurses have been in negotiations for months, and their contract expired on Dec. 31. Nurses spoke out about understaffing and how conditions at the hospital have pushed nurses to work overtime and created a revolving door of new nurses who do not stay.
Nathan Littauer is an essential community resource as the only hospital in Fulton County. The hospital serves many mothers and babies and over the last decade, the hospital has cared for an increasing share of emergency room and Medicaid patients. It has become a lifeline for all of Fulton County and the surrounding area. Nurses are fighting for a contract that ensures safe staffing throughout the hospital and nursing home and helps them deliver quality care to their community.
Nurses at Nathan Littauer are among the lowest-paid nurses in the state and are demanding a contract that addresses the staffing issues that result from this lack of investment. The hospital is routinely understaffed. While the hospital’s staffing plan submitted to the state calls for a maximum of five patients per nurse in the medical-surgical units, nurses are routinely tasked with caring for eight patients at a time. Nurses are too often asked to work overtime and say this leads to burnout, a revolving door of new nurses, and shortened orientations that lead to less essential training for new nurses.
Marion Enright, RN, local leader, said, “Turnover and understaffing means nurses are too often stretched thin. Turnover results from shortened orientations, increased nurse-to-patient ratios, and low pay. Our nurse on the emergency department’s night shift should not be the only full-time staff member on the floor. We need to be able to retain nurses if we want to provide the very best care possible. If hospital management wanted that too, they would invest in their safe patient care.”
Nurses are demanding a contract with safe staffing, competitive wages, and affordable benefits that will stop the revolving door of nurses leaving the hospital.
Nathan Littauer Hospital administrators can afford to invest in safe patient care. The total compensation for hospital CEO Sean Fadale was over $740,000 in 2023, a 32% hike from the year prior. Nurses are only asking for a fair contract that competes with other small, rural hospitals in the region, which will help them recruit and retain enough nurses to care for their community.
Wendy Bowie, RN, said, “Management refuses to take safe patient care seriously. The massive gap between nurses’ pay and our CEO’s shows where their priorities are. We didn’t come to this hospital for the pay, we came here and became nurses in the first place because we care about our patients. However, if we want to be able to give the care this community deserves, we need to be able to keep new nurses. That means respectful wages and benefits, and a plan to safely staff the hospital.”
Seth Cohen, President of the Capital District Area Labor Federation, said, “NYSNA nurses are the backbone of this community and deserve a contract that respects their work and dedication. Our community relies on this hospital – our families, neighbors, and friends are all taken care of by nurses there. If Nathan Littauer management cared about their community, they would settle a fair contract now!”
Greg Young, Gloversville 5th Ward Supervisor, said, “As the son and grandson of nurses and a proud leader in this community, I stand firmly with our dedicated nurses in their pursuit of a fair contract that ensures safe staffing, fair wages, and the resources they need to provide exceptional care. Nurses are the heartbeat of our healthcare system, and their well-being directly impacts the health of our entire community. I’m confident that through dialogue and a shared commitment to patients, Nathan Littauer management and nurses can forge an agreement that honors their vital role and strengthens our hospital for generations to come.”
NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, said, “Nathan Littauer’s CEO makes almost 10x what a nurse walking those same halls makes. However, he’s not the one caring day and night for patients—nurses are. Nurses are the ones who take care of your friends, family, and neighbors. Nathan Littauer’s management needs to remember that and take safe patient care in this community seriously by investing in their nurses.”
Last Friday, nurses marched to the office of CEO Sean Fadale to demand management come back to the table. For months, NYSNA nurses at Nathan Littauer have been fighting for a contract with clear, enforceable safe staffing standards to comply with New York state law, and wages and benefits that will keep nurses at the bedside and help them provide the safe, quality patient care the community deserves.
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The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country's largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.