Since the start of the year, the members of Westchester County’s NYSNA Negotiating Committee have been meeting to gather ideas, poll their coworkers, and prepare proposals to present to management. The 45 nurses work primarily in programs run out of the county’s health and social services departments. A few are assigned to county jails, as well.

James Heuberger, RNC and LBU Vice President, and a supervising nurse for the Department of Social Services’ Medicaid private duty nursing, personal care, and care at home program, said, “Most of our members are in the field every day, working on their own. They don’t have a coworker down the hall to bounce ideas off of. Our union gives us that connection with other nurses and a united voice on global issues like staffing.”

New experience

This negotiation is the first for NYSNA Negotiating Committee member Remiya Mathew, RN. She started working for Westchester a little less than two years ago in the personal care program and is looking forward to the experience of contract negotiations. “I got my feet wet this past fall working with our union’s election committee,” she said, and decided she wanted to do more. “Knowing that my NYSNA nurse colleagues are there to back me up gives me the security I need to best do my job.”