Members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) braved the cold weather Tuesday, Dec. 13, to hold an informational picket outside Ozanam Hall in Bayside to demand a fair contract that includes safe staffing ratios, strong retention policies and good healthcare benefits.
This picket comes after almost eight months of contract negotiations, which has failed to yield a result thus far. According to NYSNA, the nurses at Ozanam Hall are regularly being pushed into working 16-hour shifts. They say this mandated overtime is the result of unsafe staffing conditions.
According to NYSNA, Ozanam Hall management is looking to reduce and restrict sick leave for nurses. This comes after the COVID-19 pandemic forced many nurses to fall ill. NYSNA claims management for Ozanam Hall is also interested in reducing the nurses’ health benefits and increasing the cost to nurses.
According Ozanam Hall nurse and bargaining unit executive committee member Marie Pierre, this picket was organized because she and her fellow nurses didn’t feel as though their voices were being heard. Having worked at Ozanam Hall since 2006, she voiced the frustrations she and her colleagues have endured throughout the negotiating process.
“Nurses are the backbone of the [nursing home] facilities,” Pierre said. “We work extremely hard every single day, understaffed. And most of the time, they try to manage us to work overtime because they have a lack of staff. It mentally and physically drains us. We thought this contract was going to be the easiest one because of what we’ve been through. But instead, we are fighting to stop potential cuts to our healthcare benefits. We are fighting for a fair wage for the next three years. We are fighting to stop potential cuts for other benefits such as vacation time, holidays and personal time.”
Local NYSNA President at Ozanam Hall of Queens Nursing Home Sabrina Adonus, RN, shared a story of how her family’s life was impacted by her having to work extra shifts without any breaks during the early days of the pandemic. According to Adonus, she came into work one evening for an overnight shift despite her husband not feeling well at the time, assuming she’d be back in the morning or early afternoon to take care of him. However, she was mandated to continue working throughout the day and didn’t get out until 5 p.m. When she finally got home, her husband was feeling worse and she took him to the hospital. He ended up dying as a result of COVID-19.
“That day, I feel like I chose my job ahead of my husband,” Adonus said. “Now I’m a single mother with four children and I’m still coming to work here and still have the same fear where I come in and don’t know when I’m coming out. All we need is a fair contract.”
QNS has reached out to management for Ozanam Hall and is waiting for a response.
The picketers were joined by Assembly members Edward Braunstein and Ron Kim. Both agreed with the protesters that the hard work these nurses have put in throughout the pandemic should allow them to get more benefits, not have existing ones taken away.
“After everything that you have been through during the pandemic, you should be getting more, you shouldn’t be fighting to keep what you have,” Braunstein said. “You deserve a pay increase that keeps up with inflation. I wanted to let you know that I stand with you here and in Albany and together we’re going to keep fighting and you guys are going to get what you deserve.”
According to Kim, while nurses are viewed as public servants in other states, New York instead decides to contract everything out. He feels hiring third-party contractors rather than using funds raised from Medicaid and Medicare to pay the nurses is inefficient.
“These nurses, these frontline workers saved not only our community, but saves our economy at the worst of times,” Kim said. “We’re asking this organization to do the right thing, come out and give the workers the contract they deserve so we can make sure that older adults and loved ones are taken care of in our communities.”
NYSNA and Ozanam Hall are next scheduled to met for negotiations Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Ozanam disputed the claims made by the picketers.
“Any suggestion by the union that we are compromising health benefits for our nurses is unfair and inaccurate,” the spokesperson said. “Ozanam continues to offer very rich health insurance benefits with little premium cost to our nurses, including a minimal 6% premium share for family coverage. We have also offered substantial wage increases, such as an enhanced rate that would increase a nurse’s wage rate by 10% or more. We will continue to bargain in good faith and look forward to settling a fair contract with the union and our nurses.”
NYSNA represents over 42,000 members in New York state. It is the largest union and professional association for registered nurses in New York. 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 over 225,000 members nationwide.
