After more than a year notiations with Nuvance Health—an out-of-state healthcare corporation with little affinity with or investment in the Hudson Valley communities it serves—2,500 members finally ratified a contract in late April.

The contract added three new bargaining units to the former collective agreement that previously covered only technical and service workers at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie and Putnam Hospital in Carmel, New York. The new members, who joined 1199 in the past two years are technical workers at Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck and biomedical engineers and radiation therapists at Vassar and Putnam.

The employer’s constant stalling forced the members to hold several informational pickets, join with concerned elected officials and patients at press conferences, hold car caravans to inform the public and contact Board members, and demand dozens of meetings with management (away from the negotiating table.)

1199 Magazine: May / June 2023