On October 22, CSEA Local 830 President Jerry Laricchiuta, along with officials from the Long Island Federation of Labor, met with New York State Governor David Paterson at Local 338 in Mineola. Long Island Fed President John Durso organized the meeting to discuss various labor issues with the governor, including his initiative for statewide budget cuts.

 

Laricchiuta got a chance to grab the Governor’s ear on a topic that has been very prevalent to Local 830 members at Nassau University Medical Center. That has to do with the change in nurses’ shifts which has created the need for management to issue mandated overtime, which is against a July 1 law signed by Gov. Paterson. Laricchiuta informed the governor of CSEA’s work in contacting the Department of Labor and Department of Health, but Paterson said this might be a job for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. 

 

Currently, out of approximately 100,000 registered nurses in New York State, only 40,000 are working. Paterson said that the purpose of the law instituted July 1 was to increase that number, but that mandating overtime would actually be going against the purpose of this law. 

 

CSEA Local 830 and its NUMC Unit are in the process of contacting the Attorney General’s office in the hopes of opening a possible investigation of this. Stay tuned to www.csea830.org for more information on this developing situation.