ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – Healthcare workers protested “unacceptable” staffing shortages at Arnot Ogden Medical Center Wednesday afternoon, as their union negotiates a new 3-year contract with hospital management. The current contract expires July 23. About 50 healthcare workers and union members gathered outside the hospital on Walnut Street as honking cars drove by.
Hospital employees including Clinical Assistants, Unit Clerks and Dietary Workers say they are understaffed and overworked. They say it’s a problem that’s impacting patient care. Workers say they receive patient complaints about staffing levels every day. They say they are sometimes forced to work up to 16 hour shifts. Their union says depending on the unit, staffing levels are 5 to 30% below normal.
Arnot Health says its “committed to safe staffing,” while dealing with a nationwide healthcare worker shortage at hospitals and nursing homes.
The healthcare workers are represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1111. The CWA, founded in 1938, says it represents workers in “the communications and information industries, as well as the news media, the airlines, broadcast and cable television, public service, higher education and health care, manufacturing, in high tech and more.”
“Today I stand before you with both a heavy heart and a burning determination to address the extremely difficult working conditions of the frontline health care workers due to severe understaffing,” said Tasha Lamb, an ICU Unit Clerk at Arnot Ogden.
“Currently we are bargaining a successor contract. One of the issues that we want to address is safe staffing. We’re forced to take on more and more patients. It puts an unbearable strain on us as workers. It pushes us to our limits and makes it harder and harder for us to deliver the quality care our patients deserve,” Lamb said.
“Short staffing also compromises patient care. It threatens our community. When health care workers are short staffed, we’re forced to make impossible choices, sacrificing service and compassion because there simply aren’t enough of us to go around,” Lamb added.
“What’s even more infuriating is that management is not just turning a blind eye to this staffing crisis. They are actively working against our efforts to address it. Rather than addressing the legitimate concern of frontline health care workers and working with us on a solution, hospital management has actually taken steps to undermine our efforts.”
“Your indifference to our issues and our well-being is heartless and patients bear the consequences. As a Local 1111 staffing director, I believe I have been targeted and punished for speaking out for safe staffing,” Lamb added. “After working for a year to implement our hospital staffing plans and approving staffing, I was removed from the hospital staffing committee and banned from attending meetings. All the while management sets new staffing minimums behind our backs.”
“And this goes way beyond just me,” Lamb continued. “Our members have been threatened with being fired for just wearing calling for safe staffing, higher wages and an end to mandating. This is unacceptable. It is a direct attack on union members and our duty as frontline health care workers to advocate for safe and effective patient care. It’s ridiculous to tell healthcare workers that they can’t speak out for better patient care. We’re here today to declare that this will become an emergency if not addressed. The medical center must do better. They must commit to meaningful changes both at the bargaining table and in their daily operations. Our well-being depends on it. We will not be silent. We will not back down until we achieve a safe and healthy workplace that we deserve,” Lamb concluded.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Arnot Health released the following statement:
“Arnot Health appreciates CWA’s expressed commitment to safe staffing, and we look forward to their shared commitment in support of appropriate attendance policies and all other patient safety initiatives as we continue our negotiations in advance of our July contract renewal date.
Despite the union’s many allegations, Arnot Health is unequivocally committed to safe staffing. Our Clinical Staffing Committee, made up of management and frontline staff, ensures compliance with state guidelines for safe staffing, overseeing the daily review of staffing levels, across all shifts, enabling our organization to make real-time adjustments when needed and incorporating any staff feedback or concerns we receive.
Hospitals and nursing homes across the country continue to struggle with unprecedented competition for talent during this national healthcare workforce shortage. Any allegation that we are not working diligently is simply not supported by the facts. Arnot takes pride in the success of our robust and ongoing recruitment and retention efforts.”
MaggieBarnes
Assistant Director of Communications
Arnot Health
In a press release announcing the protest, the CWA said:
“The Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1111, including Clinical Assistants, Unit Clerks, and Dietary workers, at Arnot Ogden Medical Center, are rallying to raise the alarm on Management’s refusal to address the inadequate staffing that continues to plague the hospital and impact working conditions and patient care. These issues persist despite the statewide 2021 Hospital Clinical Staffing Committee law, which requires every facility in the state to create Clinical Staffing Committees made up of both hospital management and frontline healthcare workers that determine the number of patients each healthcare worker can be assigned for every unit and shift. In November 2023, CWA filed over 10,000 complaints to the Department of Health at hospitals across New York, including Arnot Ogden, resulting in an investigation by the DOH.
Since the Department of Health began investigating these complaints, there have been serious allegations of retaliation against the very healthcare workers the law was designed to protect.”
You can watch the full remarks made by healthcare workers and union members below:
