Optum Health workers stage 6 different protests in the Hudson Valley to demand fair first contract
Optum healthcare workers protested Monday in six different Hudson Valley locations, including Yorktown Heights and Middletown, demanding that Optum provide a fair first contract to its workers.
Healthcare workers with Optum are calling for better staffing standards to keep employees and patients safe, quality and affordable health insurance, fair wages and more.
"Every day that we don't have a contract is a day that the patients don't get safe care, it's a day that we're understaffed both with providers as well as nurses and MA's and front desk staff," said Registered Nurse Michael Mazzilli with Optum.
Mazzilli has worked in healthcare for more than a decade. He says these issues not only affect the workers themselves but also the communities they serve.
Radiographer Andrea Jackson says staffing shortages from these cumulative issues have led to high turnover, worker burnout and low morale.
"It's affecting our patients because we have unfair staffing and when it comes to community, morale is down. In general, they are not treating us or our patients properly," said Jackson.
Prior to Optum's acquisition of Caremout Medical and Crystal Run Health Care, 1199SEIU Union Members say practices operated under independent local physician control.
Now, workers say the overall conditions under Optum leadership have changed.
"Optum is making this a standardized, one-size-fits-all approach with what might work in rural Idaho won't work in New York," said Mazzilli.
A spokesperson for Optum issued the following statement to News 12.
“Providing high-quality care to people across the Hudson Valley is our top priority, and we believe the best outcomes happen when our teams work together in a respectful, collaborative environment. We will continue to bargain in good faith and in full compliance with labor laws,” the spokesperson wrote.
Optum is the largest employer of physicians nationwide.
