The Rochester Union of Nurses and Allied Professionals has solidified its new contract with Rochester Regional Health.

The union says 95% of the more than 900 Rochester General Hospital nurses it represents voted in favor of the new 42-month contract. The union reached a tentative agreement on the contract last week, which promises to increase wages and increase staffing at the hospital.

Rochester Regional Health released a statement on Thursday, 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.

"Rochester Regional Health 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.”

The agreement was eventually reached after 25 bargaining sessions over 12 months.

Hundreds of union nurses walked out of Rochester General Hospital for 48 hours in early August, citing concerns over safety, salary and more. They were prepared to strike a second time if an agreement had not been reached by Oct. 23.