MVHS nurses speak out for 'fair merger agreement' as Wynn Hospital prepares to open

Standing on the sidewalk kitty corner from the new Wynn Hospital in downtown Utica, Mohawk Valley Health System nurse Peg Tuttle said Tuesday that she wants to feel anticipation about moving into the state-of-the-art facility on Oct. 29.

But she doesn’t.

The health system and nurses from its two existing hospitals have failed to reach an agreement on a contract despite bargaining since August.

“We are no longer separate entities,” said Tuttle, a nurse on a medical-surgical unit on the St. Elizabeth Campus for 23 years. “We are one together. It should be such an exciting time … But there’s been no time for excitement.”

Nurses from both of the existing hospitals will be working together, doing the same jobs in the Wynn Hospital, she said. “We just want,” Tuttle said, “a fair merger agreement.”

Tuttle was among the few dozen nurses taking part in a New York State Nurses’ Association rally to draw attention to their contention that, barring a last-minute agreement with the health system, the opening of the new hospital will mean, for some nurses, less pay, less money going into the pension fund and higher health care premiums. At particular issue, the nurses contend, is that night shift differential pay will drop from 22 percent for nurses currently working on the St. Luke’s campus to 17 percent.

And the fact that MVHS has not agreed to a contract that lets all nurses keep the best of their current contracts, the issue is driving some nurses away, exacerbating an existing shortage, the nurses argued.

Hospital officials have a different take on the situation, arguing in a statement that no one is losing pay or benefits.

The nurses stood on the corner across the street from the Boston Pickle restaurant at Columbia and State Streets, awash in a sea of red and white union signs, knit scarves and buttons in clear view of the hospital and of the new medical office building and parking garage under construction. Many passing cars honked in solidarity.

MVHS nurses voted in July to belong to NYSNA, which had represented nurses on the St. Elizabeth Campus. Nurses on the St. Luke's and Faxton campuses were previously represented by the Communications Workers of America.

The main goal is parity for all registered nurses, said Gary Evans, a nurse in the vascular access department at St. Elizabeth.

“It’s an amazing structure,” he said, looking at the new hospital. “The problem is, it’ an empty building.”

Without parity, nurses will continue to leave, keeping the building emptier than it should be, Evans said.

The health system already has 200 nursing vacancies, filled by temporary traveling nurses, who work for an agency and earn far more than staff nurses, according to NYSNA.

“That 200 is very easily going to turn to 300,” Evans predicted.

MVHS reaction

Health system officials expressed their disappointment that the nurses chose to protest when they and the health system have been working hard to negotiate a transition agreement with more than 15 sessions to date.

More MVHS news: MVHS Rx for doctor shortage: Expanding medical education

When the nurses voted to choose between having everyone join NYSNA or the communications workers, both unions and the health system agreed that the winner’s labor contract would go into effect for all union nurses once the Wynn Hospital opened, although effects bargaining would discuss the transition, said Patricia Charvat, senior vice president, marketing and strategy, in a statement released to the media.

“There are no cuts to the nurses’ benefits or wages,” she insisted. “We continue to bargain in good faith with the union on this transition plan, including differentials, and look forward to the opening of the Wynn Hospital on Sunday, October 29, 2023.”

But the nurses see things differently.

Nurses should work under a contract that includes the best benefits of both campus’ contracts so that no one loses out, said Jessica Tuttle, Peg Tuttle’s daughter who also works in a medical-surgical unit at St. Elizabeth.

“The things that are being negotiated by the hospital are pushing people to quit,” she said. “We’re already short staffed.”

The new hospital is great for the community, emphasized Sheila Conley, an intensive care unit nurse at St. Elizabeth and the St. Elizabeth bargaining unit president. But moving into a new facility and blending a workforce is enough of a challenge without adding all this anxiety about contract conditions, she said.

“We all work hard,” she said, “so we need to be treated the same.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: MVHS nurses, NYSNA union protest benefit cuts as Wynn Hospital opens