We met Tuesday with the assistance of two federal mediators. We had over 30 observers who witnessed a spirited discussion focused exclusively on the issue of MOT. Shelly Reever RN, Esq. and Director of the Labor Program at MNA and Joanne Fergus a colleague of mine from MNA were in attendance. Shelly did an excellent job of challenging the hospital managers to accept MOT as a priority issue. She referenced other MNA hospitals with similar problems that had used the collective bargaining process to resolve the problems associate with mandatory overtime. It is difficult for me to capture in word the total effect of her presentations, but it was impressive and credible. Unfortunately, the hospital ignored all our arguments.

Instead, the hospital spent the entire day positioning themselves for their next round of propaganda. Their last proposal was a reinvention of their proposal making voluntary overtime mandatory, with a particularly twisted difference. They attributed it to us. We rejected their proposal.

In a last effort to resolve this matter we proposed that if the hospital would accept our proposal on MOT we would be willing to show greater flexibility on wages and work towards our bottom line. This proposal was rejected.

The mediators decided to end our negotiations for the day. We have scheduled informational meetings on strike authorization for April 18th from 8am to 10pm. Please try and attend at some point in the day. We need to get as much feed back as possible before we make a decision of calling for a strike vote. We will schedule our next bargaining meeting after the issue of strike authorization is resolved.