Buffalo, New York - More than 6,300 Kaleida Health workers in Buffalo have voted overwhelming in favor of authorizing a strike!

Kaleida Health workers in the nursing, clinical, technical, service, and clerical departments, represented by the CWA Local 1168 and 1199SEIU unions, voted to authorize a walkout with 96% support. That means the bargaining committee could declare a strike if necessary.

The decision came amid mounting frustrations over unsafe staffing ratios at hospitals and clinics, which make it difficult for health workers to provide the quality care patients deserve.

Things reached a boiling point when it came out that rather than hiring more full-time staff, Kaleida was instead spending $100 million on temporary, non-local fill-ins.

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"We are fighting for a fair contract that will make safe staffing in our hospitals a reality," Jim Scordato, 1199SEIU Vice-President for WNY Hospitals, said in a press release. "We will not settle for understaffed facilities, burnout and exhaustion as the status quo. We are demanding a contract that will enforce safe staffing ratios, keep wages competitive, and help attract and retain the staff needed to make Kaleida a great place to work again."

Cori Gambini, CWA Local 1168 president, added, "As a nurse, it breaks my heart to not be able to give each and every patient the attention they deserve, but it’s also dangerous. It’s dangerous when we are stretched thin, when we are exhausted, and when colleagues continue to leave because they see zero action from Kaleida to attract new hires."

"We voted to authorize a strike, because if the hospital workers who walk through Kaleida’s doors every day and see the dire situation do not stand up for Buffalo’s residents, who will?" she continued.

The news came the same week that over 15,000 nurses in Minnesota went on a historic three-day strike. They shared many of the same concerns as Buffalo nurses, including a heavy focus on unsafe staffing ratios.

In Northern California, Kaiser health workers have been on strike for more than five weeks.

Meanwhile, in Buffalo, nurses at Mercy Hospital electrified the labor movement last year when their five-week strike ended with a big win: a contract that guaranteed a $15-an-hour minimum wage and nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

Kaleida Health workers will seek to build on that success in their own fight for better conditions on the job.