Employees of Peconic Bay Medical Center picketed today outside the Riverhead hospital to demand a new employment contract with wage increases comparable to other hospitals, as well as protections against artificial intelligence.
Six hundred employees at the Northwell Health hospital — including nursing assistants, transporters, clerical employees and others — are members of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union, which is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the hospital’s management. The previous agreement expired in November and was extended through Jan. 10, according to union officials.
More than 100 people, including hospital employees on their lunch breaks and allies of the workers, gathered on the sidewalk on Heroes Way across from the hospital early Monday afternoon.
Alexandra Ryan, the union’s contract administrator for PBMC’s workers, said hospital management offered the unit raises of 2% and 3%, while employees of other Northwell hospitals received a contract with raises of 7%, 6% and 5% over three years. Some jobs at the hospital are paid 25% less than the same jobs at other Northwell hospitals, she said.
“Three and a half percent is not going to pay your rent. We want a decent contract,” said Katherine Nogueras, a 20-year-old employee of the hospital on the union negotiating committee. “We have great benefits. We have great employees here. We want to continue as we do now, giving great care. We’re the foundation of this hospital and the backbone. We just want to make sure that it stays like that.”
“We just want fair wages. We work very hard. We’re not getting enough. We’re the lowest paid hospital from Northwell,“ said Monika Mills, a patient care technician at the hospital.
The union is also worried about artificial intelligence “infiltrating our jobs,” Ryan said. “We’re trying to put protections into the contract to make sure that if the employer is going to bring in AI, that we are alerted of it and noticed, we have training positions like put in place, and we can effectively make sure that none of our people lose their jobs to it.”
“We’re hoping for a really successful picket, which this is, will show [the hospital] and show the public in the community that these workers deserve what every other worker has,” Ryan said. “And this hospital gets a lot of donations from the community and we’re hoping that puts the pressure on them.”
In an emailed statement, Jake Mendlinger, a spokesperson for Northwell Health, wrote that the hospital is “committed to continuing constructive, good-faith negotiations with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East to reach a fair contract that supports our team members and upholds the high-quality care our patients deserve.”
“Peconic Bay Medical Center respects the right of our team members to conduct informational picketing. This is not a strike, and we want to assure our patients and the community that normal hospital operations will continue without disruption. Providing uninterrupted, high-quality care remains our top priority,” the statement said.
The union and hospital will hit the negotiating table again on Wednesday, union officials said.
“We hope it doesn’t get to a strike — for the patients sake,” said Mary Maki, who works as a registrar and in radiology at the hospital.
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