POUGHKEEPSIE — After more than a year of negotiations, Nuvance Health and the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union representing health workers at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Putnam Hospital and Northern Dutchess Hospital have reached a contract agreement that the union labeled as “historic.”
The three-day ratification vote took place between April 19-21 when approximately 1,500 members voted to ratify the contract, which comes after more than a year of tense negotiations and pressure from the union demanding better pay and increased staffing.
The contract includes base pay increases between 10 and 15 percent for biomedical engineers and radiation therapists at Northern Dutchess Hospital, annual raises of 3.5 percent in the next two years and a 3 percent annual increase in the third year. Under the new contract, health care workers also will maintain health benefits through the 1199 National Benefit Fund, while new members will be covered by the fund starting Dec. 1, 2024. Employees also will receive time off to observe Juneteenth, which was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021.
Employees like technical workers at Northern Dutchess, biomedical engineers and radiation therapists at Vassar and Putnam had been without a union contract since the last one expired Sept. 30, 2022, said union officials at 1199SEIU, which has represented members at Vassar and Putnam since the 1980s. The union said the new contract will help with retention and staffing...
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