Why We're On Strike

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We are fighting for enforceable staffing ratios to ensure that patients are getting high quality healthcare.

We are fighting for affordable, high quality healthcare for all workers, now and in the future.

We are fighting for fair wage increases that close the gap between CHS and other area hospitals, and ensure that CHS will be able to attract and retain staff so that patients are guaranteed good quality care.

You can help! Call 716-828-2187 to tell Catholic Health President Eddie Bratko that Safe Staffing Saves Lives! CHS workers need a fair contract that prioritizes safe patient care.

To our patients and the Buffalo community,

We are the healthcare workers at Mercy Hospital.We are the people who save lives. We make sure patients are fed and get the medicines they need, keep rooms clean with fresh bed linens and towels, help patients bathe and use the bathroom, and administer and run critical tests.

We have made the extremely difficult decision to go on strike because Catholic Health has made it impossible for us to provide this care and attention. We want you to hear from us directly about what brought us to this breaking point.

Our hospital, and the hospitals throughout the Catholic Health System, are dangerously understaffed. Every day, we are terrified of needless patient deaths in our hospital because we are stretched so thin.

We have bargained for months to achieve a contract agreement that will allow us to do our jobs properly, but Catholic Health stubbornly refuses to agree to iron-clad safe staffing levels that will ensure your safety. We have concluded that only a strike will make Catholic Health understand that we must have guaranteed increased staff and improved compensation if we hope to provide the quality of care our community deserves.

Last year, before the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed everybody, we were negotiating with CHS for a new contract. We chose to postpone talks and extend our contract in light of the emerging crisis. We worked around the clock during Buffalo’s darkest times. Now, the staffing shortage has only gotten worse, and Catholic Health has failed to address the crisis that has emerged at our hospitals.

Catholic Health watched as we suffered through the trauma and burnout of this crisis and as too many of us became sick and succumbed to the virus. Scores of our colleagues left in frustration or because they found better wages and working conditions at other hospitals.

But instead of agreeing to a fair contract that will attract and retain desperately needed new staff, Catholic Health wants to cut our health benefits, keep our wages stagnant, and force us to continue working in dangerously understaffed conditions.

Catholic Health says we are unreasonable to insist on safe staffing ratios and quality patient care. But as healthcare workers, there is no alternative for us. It is our duty and ethical obligation to stand up for our patients.

Catholic Health has put us in an impossible position. The last thing we want is to see care disrupted. We ask the Buffalo community to join us in urging Catholic Health to agree to a contract that puts patient care first and gets us back to work serving you.

Sincerely,
Mercy Hospital Healthcare Workers