BUFFALO, N.Y. — A tentative three-year agreement has been reached between Kaleida Health and the two unions its been negotiating with since mid-March.
The two unions, CWA Local 1168 and 1199 SEIU represent some 6,300 Kaleida employees at Buffalo General, Oishei Children's Hospital, Millard Fillmore Suburban, Olean General Hospital, DeGraff Medical Park, and several other community-based clinics.
The deal was reached after a marathon weekend of negotiating that ended with a tentative agreement on the table around 12:15 a.m. Monday. During a press conference later that morning, union leaders said they would be endorsing the deal and putting it up for authorization by all of its union members.
"I believe we negotiated a historic agreement here that will put us in a position to recruit and retain healthcare workers of all job titles," said CWA Local 1168 President Cori Gambini.
Both unions and Kaleida Health said they would not be discussing specifics about the deal Monday and planned to share that information with union members first. Gambini however said that union priorities including a pension increase, wages, as well as staffing changes were all reached.
"We hopefully will be able to pull new people into the system. We had a lot of job openings current ones prior to bargaining and we were able to negotiate over 500 new positions in this agreement," said 1199 SEIU Vice President James Scordato.
During a separate press conference Monday afternoon, Kaleida Health President and CEO Don Boyd shared similar sentiments about the tentative deal and said it fulfills Kaleida's commitment to being the market leader in Western New York.
"We listened we collaboratively problem solved, it didn't always mean that we agreed but at the end, but by listening to one another we were able to come to an agreement that we believe was fair for everybody," said Boyd.
The agreement, if approved by union membership would be retroactive to May 31, 2022, and will carry both CWA Local 1168 and 1199 SEIU through 2025. Both unions had been working without a contract since July 31 after two-month-long extensions.
Boyd would not comment on specifics but did confirm that Kaleida's initial $200 million over a three-year economic proposal had to increase to reach the tentative deal. This is despite the fairly well-known financial struggles of the hospital post-COVID-19 pandemic. He added that there were no concessions made to existing employees.
"It was critical that we took the time and that we got it right working together," Boyd added.
"This is definitely going to lead the way in what health care is hopefully going to be based on moving forward," said Scordato.