BUFFALO, N.Y. — After six months of negotiations, Kaleida Health has reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA1168) and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.
The new three-year contract covers over 6,300 unionized employees at Buffalo General, Oishei Children's Hospital, Millard Fillmore Suburban, Highpointe on Michigan, DeGraff Medical Park, and other community-based clinics.
"We were able to reach the agreement after intense and long days of negotiations, including several 17-hour days," says April Ezell, Communications Coordinator for 1199 SEIU. "So our members and our committee are very excited to bring back the tentative agreement to the membership for a ratification vote which is expected to be held in the coming weeks."
The agreement was announced early Monday morning and covers nurses, clinical technical services, as well as clerical workers across Kaleida.
President and CEO of Kaleida Health Dan Boyd said in written statement, "We are proud that we fulfilled our commitment of our three stated objectives as part of this contract: no concessionary bargaining, addressing staffing needs across Kaleida Health plus investing in our workforce with wage increases and more. Our workforce has been stretched to the max these past two and half years; and that they continue to step up to help us address the challenges we face. So it is vitally important that we continue to support and invest in them.”
CWA and SEIU 1199 will hold a press conference Monday morning to share more details on the agreement and what's next.
We will continue to update this story as those details become available.