ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals voted 95 percent in favor of the latest contract agreement with Rochester General Hospital Wednesday night, which finalizes their contract.

Nurses were asking for higher wages, and a better system to manage staff to patient ratios to ensure patients are well taken care of, which was granted in the latest round of negotiations with the hospital.

Rochester General Hospital put out a statement Thursday morning, saying that they are happy with the agreement with the union saying in part:

“This contract allows RGH to staff the hospital to best meet the needs of our patients, provides nurses with significant wage increases over the next 42 months, and ensures we continue to serve the Rochester community with care, compassion, and competence.”

The agreement averted a second planned strike that would have taken place this week had they not come to an agreement.

Full Statement from Rochester General Hospital

“We are pleased that the more than 900 Rochester General Hospital (RGH) nurses represented by the Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals (RUNAP) voted in favor of ratifying our first collective bargaining agreement. This contract allows RGH to staff the hospital to best meet the needs of our patients, provides nurses with significant wage increases over the next 42 months, and ensures we continue to serve the Rochester community with care, compassion, and competence.

Rochester Regional Health (RRH) is constantly working to ensure our facilities remain competitive both within our system and throughout the broader market. As part of that effort, we are reviewing our compensation structure and will be developing and implementing new wage scales for all RRH RNs based on years of licensure, the individual RN’s location, and their specialty. We will be rolling the new scales out across the system in early 2024 and will provide additional details to our employees in the coming months.”