Health care workers unite to fight for quality patient care

By Beverly Hiestand, R.N.
Retired CWA 1168 member
Buffalo, N.Y.

“Patients are our purpose, the union is our voice” read some of the placards carried by 3,000 picketers on June 6 outside Buffalo General Hospital, a Kaleida Health facility. Kaleida is the largest health care provider and private sector employer in Western New York. It was formed by the merger of five large hospitals in 1998.

Health care workers demand a contract, June 6. WW photo: Beverly Hiestand

The connections between working conditions and patient care were made as the united mass of union members demanded that Kaleida negotiate a fair contract for workers with terms based on quality patient care.

Communications Workers Local 1168, Service Employees Local 1199 and the Operating Engineers have been jointly negotiating with Kaleida since March on a new master agreement for 7,700 workers. The current contract has been extended until June 17.

Picketers were joined by supporters from other CWA and SEIU health care locals, the United Auto Workers, Teamsters Local 264, Civil Service Employees Association, NYS Professional Employees Federation, Jobs with Justice, Coalition for Economic Justice, the WNY International Action Center and others.

A contingent of Buffalo workers represented by Professional Employees Local 212 came. They are part of 390 locked-out workers at insurer HealthNow New York and parent BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York. They came to return the support they have received from the Kaleida unions during many rallies and picket lines. HealthNow, the only unionized health insurer in Western New York, has long benefited from that status by attracting business from many other unionized employers, including Erie County, the City of Buffalo and public school districts. (Buffalo News, June 7)

The call for community support sent out by the Western New York Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, noted that Kaleida is proposing life-changing give-backs from its workers, which will greatly impact how they can care for their families and future workers for generations to come.

CWA 1198 President John Klein said that some of Kaleida’s proposals are similar to proposals that caused the unions to strike in the early 1980s. They include a two-year wage freeze, a large increase in the cost of health insurance, weakening of union representation and a decrease in sick time. (Buffalo News, June 7)

The company is proposing cutting allowed short-term sick leave to four days a year. Angered employees point out that they are routinely exposed to patient illness and assaults and that going to work sick exposes patients to employees’ illnesses.

A consistent complaint of workers is that while resources are poured into building construction and technology updates, their working conditions are made more difficult by cutbacks, increasing responsibilities and speed-up. Workers say this is unsafe and leads to errors, deaths and just plain lack of care.

Many of those on the picket line have worked in local hospitals and health care facilities for decades. They are the people closest to the patients and see the impact of major changes in health care delivery. They say that regardless of the formation of a huge consolidated health care system with modern buildings and technology, the quality of health care delivered is constantly deteriorating.

Health care staff are told that competent care is critical to the health and survival of their patients. Although they are held accountable to very high standards, they have to fight over each contract to even keep their current wages and benefits.

The future of health care

The picket line extended down a side street near another huge new building — the new Global Heart and Vascular Institute, a $291 million Kaleida construction project. This facility will provide clinical care, research and business with the State University of New York at Buffalo.

While this is promoted as bringing more jobs and businesses to Buffalo, the workers may well wonder what the working conditions will be like there and if this will really improve health care in the third poorest city in the U.S. Many people in Buffalo cannot afford to go anywhere for health care, and there is a huge lack of primary care in the city.

The Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century was appointed in 2006 by New York pro-business Gov. George Pataki and the legislature. The most common publicity at the time was that in order to provide vital service to communities there needs to be better planning, less duplication in services and an emphasis on primary care and prevention.

The commission ordered nine hospitals to close in the state and 48 others to affiliate, downsize or change services — a plan that would eliminate 4,200 hospital beds, or about 7 percent of the total statewide. Although there was extensive input from health care experts around the state about improving care, the most visible result is a huge inflow of money to tear down old facilities, build new ones and bring in new technology.

Gov. Pataki appointed Stephen Berger, chair of the private equity investment firm Odyssey Investment Partners LLC, to lead what became known as the Berger Commission. Berger stated: “Creating a more efficient system was in part meant to help institutions better access the debt market. We were concerned with creating an environment which over the next decade would improve the capital-raising capacity of health care institutions in this state. We believe that to do that you’ve got to go through several steps of consolidation and rationalization to create stronger institutions with better cash flow.” (www.bondbuyer.com)

Nothing is said about money for more human resources. Health care workers maintain that good health care is determined not just by new buildings and technology. Nursing studies have shown that patient outcomes improve as staffing ratios increase.

While the Berger Commission talked about prioritizing primary preventive care and a focus on the increased needs for care of an aging population, Kaleida has closed down most of its primary care clinic sites and two nursing homes. It is building a new skilled nursing facility to consolidate services, but the overall bed count will decrease.

Positive effect: consolidation of workers into large unions

The establishment of a huge health care system has had another effect and that is the consolidation of many thousands of workers into large unions that are now working together. This could be seen in the multinational faces of thousands of picketers as they marched together for “our union.” Several decades ago in Buffalo, fewer workers were organized into smaller unions. These were divided into bargaining units that often put low-wage workers and oppressed groupings in competition with higher-paid, mainly white health care workers.

Kaleida unions have worked together to organize the unorganized and to bargain one master contract for all the workers with a common expiration date. Now multinational, low-wage and higher-wage workers are building unity and solidarity, improving their working conditions and working together to bring better quality health care. The unions have worked on narrowing the gap between lower- and higher-paid workers. They were instrumental in getting Kaleida to bring in modern lifting devices to reduce employee injuries.

Kaleida unions have led a struggle that has prevented the closing of a family health clinic and a skilled nursing facility in the Spanish-speaking community. They have supported the community’s needs to maintain health care facilities near their families, reflective of their culture and with Spanish-speaking employees.

The war against the working class now being waged includes unprecedented attacks on health care workers. However, struggles in Buffalo and elsewhere show the potential to build strong union-community alliances that will be powerful antidotes to the poisonous greed of big business and reflect a future of health care based on need, not profits.