Workers from Vassar Brothers Medical Center got out the word about short staffing with an Aug. 25 car caravan.

Members at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, took their safe staffing fight on the road Aug. 25 with a mobile billboard that called attention to their ongoing struggle to improve staffing levels and patient safety at their institution.

1199ers and NYSNA members joined the mobile billboard-led car caravan over 65 miles through the Poughkeepsie region letting area residents know that the hospital’s management has been unresponsive to workers’ concerns about staffing levels at their hospital. The miles-long car-train also made stops along the way to discuss the untenable situation with trustees of Heath Quest, Vassar’s hospital system.

Caregiver workloads at the hospital have increased; members are logging millions of dollars in overtime, yet management refuses to acknowledge the need for more staff, preferring instead to rely on an exhausted workforce stretched to the bone. Vassar workers were doubly insulted when bosses instituted a punitive sick time “dependability” policy. The hospital publicly touts its growing census and number of visitors, while ignoring the voices of concerned caregivers.

“Every department from nurses to patient care technicians is short staffed,” PCT John Rodriguez told the Poughkeepsie Journal. “We want to give the right amount of care. How can we do it without the support? And, with this new dependability policy, if we call out a certain amount of days, we’re afraid we’re going to get fired.”