Nurses at Westchester Medical Center Overwhelmingly Ratify a New Contract
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 5, 2017
Contact: Michael Galotti, mgalotti@kivvit.com, 914.584.2256
Andrew LaGuardia, 914.493.6532
WESTCHESTER — Registered nurses from the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla announced today that the nurses have overwhelmingly ratified a new contract. The new contract comes after years of negotiations between the two sides, and is a major step forward in continuing quality RN care into the future.
The new contract affects the approximately 1,500 nurses who work at Westchester Medical Center, the flagship of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, serving patients from the seven-county Hudson Valley region and beyond.
“After years of meetings and negotiations, the nurses at Westchester Medical Center are pleased to have settled our contract — a contract that recognizes the dedication and hard work that our nurses provide to all patients,” said Claire Maggio, RN, Acting President, Local Bargaining Unit. “We commend Westchester Medical Center, not only for a contract that is fair and equitable, but one that also allows for a broader collaboration between administration and nurses in order to reach our common goal of providing advanced care, while continuing our mission as a public hospital.”
“This 11-year agreement, effective April 1, 2011 through December 31, 2021, makes significant investments in salaries so that we can continue to retain and recruit the best and the brightest nurses and maintain parity with other large metropolitan-area academic medical centers,” said Michael D. Israel, President and CEO of WMCHealth. “We are eager to begin a new chapter of partnership and collaboration with a common vision of providing the finest care to the region’s most critically ill and injured children and adults, and advancing care here for the three million people of the region that we serve.”
The contract solves issues involving salaries and benefits. It allows WMC to now better attract, recruit and retain the best nurses for its patients.
This agreement comes on the heels of contract ratifications between NYSNA and management at hospitals across the state affecting tens of thousands of nurses.
###
About New York State Nurses Association
The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) represents 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. For more information, please visit our website at www.nysna.org.
About Westchester Medical Center, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network
Westchester Medical Center is the premier provider of advanced medical care in New York’s Hudson Valley region. The flagship of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, this 895- bed academic hospital located in Valhalla, New York, provides local residents with acute care services - Level I trauma and burn care, organ transplants and advanced neurovascular procedures and more - found nowhere else in the region. Westchester Medical Center is the primary referral facility for other hospitals in the Hudson Valley and serves as a lifeline for more than 3.5 million people. To learn more about Westchester Medical Center and the vital services it provides to residents of the Hudson Valley and beyond, visit www.WestchesterMedicalCenter.org or follow Westchester Medical Center at www.Facebook.com/WestchesterMedicalCenter or www.Twitter.com/WestchesterMed.
About Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth)
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with 10 hospitals on eight campuses spanning 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians. From Level 1, Level 2 and Pediatric Trauma Centers, the region’s only acute care children’s hospital, an academic medical center, several community hospitals, dozens of specialized institutes and centers, skilled nursing, assisted living facilities, homecare services and one of the largest mental health systems in New York State, today WMCHealth is the pre-eminent provider of integrated healthcare in the Hudson Valley. For more information about WMCHealth, visit www.WMCHealth.org.
###