Kaleida, unions agree on tentative three-year labor deal

By Tracey Drury

June 20, 2016

Kaleida Health and its union partners have finalized a master bargaining agreement for 7,500 unionized employees.

The health system announced Sunday it had reached a tentative three-year agreement with the Communications Workers of America/AFL-CIO (CWA1168), International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE 17) and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Each are expected to hold individual ratification votes in the coming weeks with their members.

The agreement follows three months of negotiations and nearly two dozen sessions, with agreements on both economic and non-economic issues,. It also came after two consecutive years of positive operating margins at Kaleida, which reported a surplus of $23 million for 2015 and revenue of nearly $1.4 billion.

Though details will not be available until after the votes, both sides said in a media statement that the contract includes wage increases and additional hires, as well as changes to work rules.

That’s a marked difference from the last negotiation cycle in 2013, when an eleventh hour agreement came about only after the unions threatened a strike. Wages and health insurance were both major sticking points in that cycle.

This time, both management and labor representatives said they worked “long and hard” to craft an agreement that provides the best wages and benefits of any health contract in Western New York.

“I believe this will help Kaleida Health continue to be the employer of choice for health care workers and the best choice for the community to seek medical care,” said Cori Gambini, president of CWA1168.