ATTN: Rochester Regional Health (RRH) Board of Directors
We, the undersigned system-wide staff, hereby protest the severe cuts to our healthcare benefits announced on November 5, 2025, and demand their complete reversal.
Prior to these changes, health insurance at RRH already cost far too much and covered far too little compared to competitors in the region, including the University of Rochester and, especially, facilities in Buffalo and Syracuse where higher percentages of staff are unionized and have been able to demand better coverage at lower costs. RRH leadership should be exploring ways to improve our benefits, not make them worse.
While acute-care RNs are insulated from some of the changes due to the RUNAP union contract and protections, non-union staff (the majority of employees) currently lack all such protections.
If implemented, these cuts will lead to disastrous consequences, including:
- Our lowest paid coworkers, like Patient Care Techs and Kitchen workers, will see the premiums increase by 10x, exacerbating the fact that they are already being paid near poverty wages.
- Non-union employees making $80,000/year will pay between $2,900 and $5,200 more per year for a family plan than employees making $79,999/year, creating hard cliffs at each pay band where a raise could actually cost someone thousands.
- Financial burdens will worsen for employees already struggling with high deductibles, high out-of-pocket maximums, and limited in-network coverage, especially those needing specialists not available at RRH.
- Seeing their premiums rise by up to 50x, many physicians and advanced practice providers are already talking about leaving, meaning community members will lose their trusted providers.
Together, the impact of these cuts will be that our coworkers will struggle, and already unacceptable rates of staff turnover and vacancy will worsen across the board. Our hospitals and clinics will work increasingly short, and patient care will suffer. The fact that, only one week after RRH admitted to owing a $100,000 fine for understaffing Registered Nurses at Rochester General Hospital, the system would decide to potentially worsen retention for every other group is outrageous.
From the bedside to essential support functions throughout the system, RRH’s workers put patient care first in serving our community. We expect leadership that does the same, and in this we have been failed.
We are addressing the Board of Directors because we have lost confidence in CEO Chip Davis and upper administration. If this is how he values his staff, we do not see how he can continue in the role. We know you all to be prominent members of the Rochester community, and we call on you to take swift action to protect our community by making sure our staff can continue to care for patients at our hospitals, clinics, and other facilities.
A “pause” is not enough. We need a full reversal, including the restoration of the CDHP Plus plan and extending RUNAP’s maximum 6% annual cap on increases in employee contributions to all staff in this and future years, so we can properly staff our facilities and care for our community. We request the full Board meet with representatives selected by your employees, from support workers to nurses to providers to allied health professionals, to ensure our voices are properly heard.
(This petition constitutes protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act and all non-managerial staff members’ right to sign and distribute it free from retaliation is therefore guaranteed by federal law, regardless of union status. The Rochester Union of Nurses & Allied Professionals has offered its legal counsel free of charge to any RRH worker, union or non-union, who feels these rights have been infringed. We’ve got each others’ backs!)