Legionnaires’ Outbreak: Health Workers Say They’re Burnt Out, Understaffed

The union representing the city’s public health professionals and scientists says that units dedicated to testing the city’s water supply are critically understaffed — complicating New York’s ability to control a Legionnaires’ outbreak that has so far killed three people and spread to the air conditioning cooling towers of at least 76 Manhattan buildings.

Members of Local 3005 blame the staff shortages on low salaries and burnout that make it difficult to recruit and retain specialists, such as water ecologists, who respond to positive tests for harmful bacteria including Legionella, which causes Legionnaire’s disease. The local represents 1,300 scientists and specialists across the city health department and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The current vacancy rate at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is 8.53%, which is higher than the overall rate of 5.79% across all city agencies, according to data from the city comptroller’s office. Four positions currently open on the health department’s jobs portal list salary ranges from $52,800 to $70,700 for “experienced” water ecologists. The health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“There is a serious shortage of workers in this title due to low pay and poor working conditions,” the union wrote in a press release on July 16. “The worker shortage limits the city’s ability to adequately address this crisis.” 

By Sunday the health department had confirmed three deaths linked to the Legionnaire’s outbreak. The victims were not identified. 

Meghan Peterson, the president of Local 3005, says the union will call on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fill the critical workforce gaps.

Disease, Smoke and Parasites

She said her members have been hammered this summer by multiple public health emergencies, from extreme heat and the Canadian wildfire smoke, to outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease and the cyclosporiasis parasite.

“We have just been getting hit with thing after thing, and everyone is stretched thin and burnt out,” she said. 

The local is in the middle of negotiating its first agreement since 2017 governing quality-of-life and other issues specific to its workforce of scientists and engineers.

The collective bargaining agreement between the city and District Council 37 — which governs wages, benefits and other major issues impacting the union’s 100,000 members, including Local 3005 — expires in November. But DC 37’s individual locals are also covered by smaller agreements known as “unit contracts,” side deals that address unique needs of hundreds of different job titles across the city’s civil service.

Among the local’s demands: flexible work schedules, “safe and comfortable” office temperatures, and better overtime compensation to address backlogs at the medical examiners’ office. The union also wants the city to speed up its recruitment and hiring process; Peterson says it can take up to a year to hire at the health department. 

In a press release ahead of a rally and press conference scheduled for Monday, Local 3005 also referenced the poor state of the health department’s facilities across the city, such as broken A/C units amid the heat wave.

The agency’s headquarters at 125 Worth St. drew negative attention earlier this year by a mouse and roach infestation, but Peterson told The City Reporter that the pests are now under control.

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