(WILLIAMSVILLE, NEW YORK) – Delivering on their Members’ request to “hold the line” on the cost of their health care benefits, Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1122 announced today (Tuesday, April 11th) that Unionized Caregivers employed by the Visiting Nurses Association of Western New York (VNA) have “overwhelmingly ratified” a new three-year contract.

The final vote of 190-to-6 amounted to a 97% margin, CWA Local 1122 Area Vice President/West Lynne O’Brien told WNYLaborToday.com.  The contract will expire on March 31st, 2020.  CWA Local 1122 represents a total of 650 Workers who are employed by the VNA across Western New York.

“We ‘fought very hard to getting everything we got,’” O’Brein told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “We met with our Members in each of the ten (Western New York) counties that we serve (educating on what was negotiated in the agreement) and they are ‘very happy.’  Everyone told (the Union) to ‘hold the line, especially when it came to our health care benefits.’”

The new contract features a 7.75% wage increase over the life of the three-year pact, as well as “no changes” in the VNA’s health care benefit plan for its CWA-represented Workers, as well as several other improvements, including exposure to bed bugs during home visits and bereavement leave coverings the death of grandparents and grandchildren, she said.

Founded in 1885, the VNA of Western New York was the first Visiting Nursing Organization in America.  Since then, the VNA has become one of the oldest charities in the nation and remains the largest Home Health Agency in the Western New York Region.

From humble beginnings in Western New York, the VNA movement migrated across the country.  Today, there are more than 500 Visiting Nurse Associations, employing more than 90,000 Clinicians who provide health care to more than four million people each year.

The CWA-represented VNAs provide a critical safety net in communities, enabling their patients to continue to live independently at home, according to information posted on the company’s web site.  The VNA of Western New York has evolved to be one of the largest VNA's in the country and an integral part of the health care landscape of our communities.

The VNA of Western New York serves more than 25,000 patients each year, with more than 500,000 home visits across the region, information posted on the VNA web site said. 

VNA’s Caregivers are available 24 hours per day, seven days per week and 365 days per year, providing the following services: Adult Day Services; Rehabilitation Services - VNA Home Care; Skilled Nursing Services in the Home; Infusion Pharmacy/IV Therapy Nursing; Telehealth Home Monitoring; Lifeline Personal Response System; Pediatric & Maternal Specialty Services; Personal Care Services; VNA Diabetes Program; VNA Immunization Program; and Wound Care (Home Care).