Long Struggle Pays Off for Public Health Nurses

October 12, 2006

October 12, 2006

Judith Arroyo,Vice President
of Local 436
PHOTO CREDIT: Jon Melegrito

Nearly a decade of demanding better working conditions and three years of negotiations have finally paid off for the United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists, Local 436 of AFSCME DC 37.

Thanks to a new economic agreement with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, nearly 850 public health nurses working in the city’s public schools will now have full-time union welfare fund benefits, year-round health insurance and paid holidays. 

“Even though nurses in the schools work 35 hours a week, they often work even more when there’s an emergency as they are part of the emergency response system, and are called and told to stay on standby. Nonetheless, the city was still treating them as part-time people and only gave them part-time benefits,” said Local 436 Vice Pres. Judith Arroyo.

 The nurses’ salaries will now be paid out over 12 months instead of 10 but their annual earnings will increase thanks to their gains, including 12 paid holidays, increment payments, health insurance for the whole year and bereavement leave. 

The agreement came as part of negotiations conducted over the last three years between the city, Local 436 and the United Federation of Teachers. The demands for better conditions go back even further. 

“We’d been fighting for these benefits for over 10 years. The city refused to give them to us because nurses don’t work over the summer,” added Arroyo. “But some of us do work summer school and respond to emergencies during that time. Our feeling was: ‘if we have to be available to you for the whole year then please compensate us appropriately.’”