In the first year of nursing school, students are taught that a “culture of safety” at health care facilities involves spending at least 70 percent of their time performing direct patient care. For chronically understaffed health care workers across the country, having the capacity to meet this safety standard would take a miracle of biblical proportions.

Last Friday, the roughly 2,500 health care workers at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, New York, decided they could no longer wait for a miracle. Their union, CWA Local 1133, has been trying unsuccessfully to negotiate with Catholic Health management over seriously lagging wages, a compromised health care plan, and persistent understaffing. On October 1, they walked out on strike.

Catholic Health president and CEO Mark Sullivan — who in 2016 earned a salary of $868,844, along with $298,589 from related organizations in the system — is shifting the blame for unsafe staffing levels onto health care workers and even “health care” itself. “One in five health care workers, since the pandemic has started, has left health care,” Sullivan has said. “This is not a Mercy Hospital staffing crisis. This is not a Catholic Health staffing crisis. This is a national staffing crisis. Health care, overall, is broken.”