NYC Healthcare Workers to Hospital Bosses: ‘Take the Profit Out of Your Pocket’
Fired up 1199 healthcare workers packed Foley Square on June 17 demanding the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York negotiate a contract that respects the work they do for all New Yorkers Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Staten Island paramedic Jack Chapman looked out over the thousands of fellow 1199SEIU members gathered in Foley Square on Wednesday and talked about how EMS wages have lagged behind the responsibility workers like him carry ever day.
“Too often, EMTs and paramedics are assaulted in the line of duty,” he said. “We have members who have been shot, stabbed, and who have lost their lives—all while helping complete strangers. And yet, despite those risks, we continue to answer every call that comes in, day after day. We are there because people need us.”
Chapman is among 86,000 other 1199SEIU Emergency Medical Service workers, registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, and other caregivers the union represents at 90 downstate hospitals and nursing homes in New York who are demanding the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes —the bosses in this labor fight—agree to a fair contract.
“We constantly lose our experienced providers to other careers, usually because of wages, and it should be no surprise that during a medical emergency experience matters,” Chapman continued. “We are not asking for special treatment, we are asking for fair treatment. We want to strengthen the emergency medical care available throughout New York City. That is what we are fighting for today.”
The current union contract runs out on September 30. An 1199 spokesperson told Work-Bites following this week’s Foley Square rally that the League has rejected every economic proposal put forth by the 400-plus person rank & file bargaining committee. The two sides met yesterday and are expected to meet again today.
Despite the stakes, 1199 members maintained a party atmosphere throughout Wednesday’s contract rally in Foley Square—calling out greedy hospital execs earning multi-million-dollar salaries and demanding they “Take the profit out of your pocket!”
EMS workers proudly fly their blue and white banners in Foley Square on June 17.
“There’s no healthcare without workers,” 1199 SEIU President Yvonne Armstrong said. “We do the work. We give the care. We will not be taken for granted or disrespected.”
Every healthcare worker—from EMTs to housekeepers—is essential, Armstrong added, and deserves respect.
“Every healthcare worker should be able to afford to live in the communities we serve,” she said. “Every healthcare worker should be able to afford quality care for their own family. Every healthcare worker should be able to one day retire with dignity.”
1199SEIU is seeking annual wage increases of at least 5% for its members—a chant 1199ers also sent up at the June 17 rally. The League has reportedly responded with a 2.5% bump in year one of the contract, 2.5% in year two, and a 1.25% split in the third year.
Union members are also demanding stronger safe staffing enforcement, safeguards against workplace violence, and the preservation of their healthcare package, pension, and other earned benefits.
More than 30,000 1199 members working at downstate nursing homes in New York will begin bargaining for a new contract next month, according to the union.
High-power city and state officials including New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento, all gave an added boost to 1199ers rallying in Foley Square on Wednesday.
1199ers in Foley Square this week sent a clear message to hospital bosses so far unwilling to meed their demands at the bargaining table.
But the star of the show was Mayor Zohran Mamdani who once again reaffirmed New York City’s status as a “union town” and said, “If you don't stand with the workers, then you're picking a side.”
“City hall is proud to stand with you day after day as you fight for a fair contract,” the mayor said. “We are going to use the full power of our office and our administration to make our city better for working people—whether that means fighting for good jobs with fair contracts, delivering on an affordability agenda in the most expensive city in the United States of America, or looking for any which way we can to make a day brighter for the working class person in this city.”
That kind of pro-worker rhetoric, however, flies in the face of the working class struggles New York City municipal retirees fighting for legislation to protect their healthcare; home care workers fighting to end institutionalized wage theft and round-the-clock shifts; and public housing tenants fighting the privatization and demolition of their communities have all been waging.
In each of those instances, as regular Work-Bites readers know, Hizzoner has either been MIA or acting in opposition to the interests of working class New Yorkers he’s pledged to champion.
“Let us show the world what solidarity means,” the mayor said at Foley Square this week. “Let us demonstrate what it looks like when working people come together to demand what they deserve.”
EMSPAC—the Emergency Medical Service Public Advocacy Council—declared on social media following Wednesday’s rally that the League’s latest proposals are “wholly unacceptable” and that the more than 3,000 EMS workers represented by 1199SEIU are ready to “lock arms with our union family across every title” and strike if necessary.
“We will not stand by while hopsital executives attempt to strip away benefits, undermine working conditions, and impose austerity wage structures on the very workers who keep New York’s healthcare system running every day,” the group, which is also dedicated to achieving pay parity for EMS workers, said on Instagram.
The League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes did not respond to requests for comment from Work-Bites before publication of this report.
New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] President Nancy Hagans pledged solidarity with 1199ers, and said they’re facing the same issues her members faced before going out on strike this past winter.
“These are the wealthiest hospitals in this system in the State of New York,” Hagan said. “But they want to cut corners, they want to cut off benefits to their healthcare workers, they want to cut corners on patient and worker protections. We said not on our watch—it’s not happening.”