Annual lobbying pays off for PEF nurses
Nurses' Station: PEF acts to protect nurses
PEF RNs deliver quality care at Elmira PC
PEF leads demonstration to protect patients, RNs

By DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
Hundreds of nurses from around the state traveled to the state Capitol on May 5, holding an informational rally and then lobbying state lawmakers to pass a handful of bills designed to protect patients and the quality of the nursing care they receive.

The late-morning rally on the steps of the Capitol drew more than 200 nurses represented by PEF from Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. They came to tell lawmakers to pass bills that would end mandatory overtime for nurses and establish “safe staffing” levels in New York’s hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities. And they urged lawmakers to defeat a state budget proposal to allow the state’s teaching hospitals to be privatized.

“Short staffing in our hospitals and other health care facilities is shortchanging the quality of patient care and the quality of work life for our nurses,” PEF President Roger Benson told the demonstrators. “Passing laws to create safe staffing levels and to ban mandatory overtime for nurses will go a long way toward protecting and upgrading the quality of care and correcting these unhealthy working conditions.”

NURSE POWER — June Edwards, (above) co-chair of PEF’s Statewide Nurses Committee, tells demonstrators and news reporters covering the nurses’ rally in Albany that without relief from short staffing and mandatory overtime, nurses may resign and cause the health care system to crumble. — Photo by Deborah A. Miles

Benson said the union is also urging lawmakers to reject legislation proposed by Gov. George Pataki that would permit the State University of New York’s Board of Trustees to privatize its three teaching hospitals in Brooklyn (Downstate Medical Center), Long Island (SUNY Stony Brook Hospital) and Syracuse (Upstate Medical Center).

Nursing in ‘critical care’
The demonstrators also heard from the co-chairs of the PEF Statewide Nurses Committee, RNs Debbie Egel of the Creedmoor Addiction Treatment Center in Queens and June Edwards of Upstate Medical Center University Hospital.

“We’re here today to tell our legislators, and to tell the public, that the nursing profession is in need of critical care,” Egel said. “A recent national survey of nurses showed that one out of every five nurses plans to leave the profession within the next five years. They are leaving because of mandatory overtime, decreased staff support, increased patient load and stressful working conditions. “We’ve got to stop this ‘bleeding out’ of nursing, or who will take care of the patients?” Egel said.

Edwards added the problems of mandatory overtime and short staffing are discouraging people from entering the profession.

“It’s difficult to attract new nurses because no one wants to work in a place where there is chronic understaffing,” Edwards said. “We need to pass these laws to start the process of safeguarding the nursing profession and safeguarding patient care.”

ATTENTION: STATE LEADERS — PEF nurses stand on the Capitol steps in Albany calling for laws to end short staffing and mandatory overtime. — Photo by Debbie A. Miles

Say ‘no’ to privatizing
PEF Region 12 Coordinator Doris Dodson, a member of the Statewide Nurses Committee and a registered

nurse from SUNY Stony Brook Hospital on Long Island also spoke at the rally. She urged lawmakers to say ‘no’ to the budget proposal to privatize her hospital and the other SUNY hospitals in Brooklyn and Syracuse.

“SUNY’s hospitals are not for sale,” Dodson said. “You can’t put a price tag on the teaching and research or the excellent medical care the public receives at these facilities.

“Let’s tell our legislators to make the state live up to its commitment to teach tomorrow’s medical professionals, and to continue providing health care to the sick, without regard to their finances,” Dodson concluded.

The rally also drew the support of some powerful allies, including that of Alan Lubin, executive vice president of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), and Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, sponsor of the safe staffing and nursing care quality protection bills.

Following the rally, the PEF nurses marched to the Empire State Plaza Convention Center for a working lunch to prepare to lobby lawmakers in their Albany offices later in the day.

COMMUNICATOR HOMEPAGE
Inside This Issue:
Features
PEF pushes to plug corporate tax loopholes
Members fight proposal to merge NYSPI
PEF leads demonstration to protect patients, RNs
Annual lobbying pays off for PEF nurses
Union gets preliminary injunction

Departments
President's Message: PEF is major player
You Said It: Member's letters this month
Member Mobilization: Training with rallies
Nurses' Station: PEF acts to protect nurses
Legislative Update: PEF gets record restorations
Health Benefits: Empire Plan Update
Legal Issues: Members win grievance at DOL
PS&T Contract Update: Talks continuing
Member Highlights
Retirees In Action: Huge health hikes threaten
PEF Membership Benefits Program & Travel Corp

Union Matters
PEF RNs deliver quality care at Elmira PC
Full mobilization creates union power in Reg. 5
PEF wins Article 78
Members bring Benson team back for 3rd term
PEF Election Guide: Download Supplement

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