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02.27.2006
RNs at UMass Medical-University
Hit the Picket Line
Hospital Demands Concessions Despite Hospital’s $94 Million
Surplus
Proposed Contract Would Decimate Nursing Care at Central Mass.'s
Key Trauma Center
[View
the Photos]
 Worcester—Registered
nurses (RNs) on the UMass Memorial Medical Center-University Campus
will conduct informational picketing outside the entrance to the
facility today in an effort to draw public attention to key issues
in their contentious contract talks with management. The nurses
believe the issues impact their ability to continue to provide safe
care for their patients and the hospital’s ability to retain
and recruit experienced registered nurses.
The 900 nurses at UMass University Campus, who are
represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, have been negotiating
a new contract since December of 2005, with eight sessions having
been held to date.
Negotiations began on a very negative note when
management put forth an unprecedented set of concessions that would
decimate 25 years of progress by the nurses union. “The contract
proposals that management has handed across the table so far are
shameful,” said Kathy Logan, an RN and the chairperson of
the MNA bargaining unit at UMass. “The message being sent
is that nurses are a non-essential resource at the University Campus.
While they have turned a $94 million profit in the last fiscal year,
they expect the nurses to accept massive concessions.”
“We have always provided quality care for
our patients, we have worked together with management, and we have
worked through much adversity, such as the merger,” said Judy
Locke, RN and vice chairperson of the MNA bargaining unit at UMass.
“But now that we see the profits of our labor turning into
a surplus for the hospital they tell us that the only thing they
have in mind for us is cuts in benefits. It is very disheartening.”
The RNs proposal: Strengthen
the ability to Retain and Recruit the most experienced RNs
The corner stone of the MNA University Campus proposal is to have
our hospital in the position to hire and retain the most experienced
nurses. Our patients expect and deserve nothing less. We believe
our proposals will allow us to continue to deliver the highest quality
healthcare to our patients.
To this end we have forward the following proposals:
- Safe and secure parking spaces for on-call nurses.
Many nurses take on-call duty in the overnight hours. We are asking
that the hospital provide a secure parking location, in well lit
areas, for those nurses who have to come in the middle of the
night.
- Moving from 12 to 8 hour shifts. We have found
that many of the younger RNs choose to work 12 hour shifts. For
many this works well for their family life. We have language that
would make it easier for these nurses to change to 10 or 8 hour
shifts as their personal demands change.
- A key proposal to retain experienced nurses
is to guarantee that any day shift RN with 20 years of service
to the hospital, and having reached the age of 55, will not have
to rotate to work evenings or nights.
Management's proposal: Cutting
benefits and working conditions to the point where it will be very
difficult to Retain and Recruit experienced nurses.
Hospital management is asking MNA members to accept
contract language that aims to gut nurses’ pension benefits,
while denying the benefit altogether for new hires. Specifically,
these proposals would provide key benefits to senior nurses while
newly-hired nurses would not be eligible for the same benefits:
- Contributions to senior RNs’ defined benefit
pension plans will be frozen, and new RNs will not get the defined
benefit pension at all. The provision of the UMMC pension was
a condition of the merger agreement that created the UMass Memorial
system.
- A weakening of maternity/FMLA policies.
According to Logan, “Essentially they’ve
decided that this negotiating committee is willing to sell out newly-hired
RNs. We will never agree to that. We will not sell out our profession
by hurting the nurses who will follow us.”
Management is also seeking:
- A reduction in personal days.
- The elimination of three holidays.
- A new distinction that makes anyone working
less than 32 hours per week a part-time employee, which means
they will be forced to pay a higher percentage of their medical
coverage.
- Elimination of the program that allows nurses
to donate sick time to co-workers in need.
- The gutting of language specific to “reduction
in force” (RIF), resulting in the weakening of the protections
given to senior nurses if jobs are cut.
In the Black, but Still Under Attack
One of the most shocking components of the nurses’ struggle
to achieve a fair contract is that UMass Medical Center had posted
record profits of $94.3 million dollars in fiscal year 2005—yet
management is still determined to decimate the very thing that is
most essential in patient care: nursing.
In a December 21 memo to hospital staff announcing
the windfall, John O’Brien, president and CEO, wrote that
UMass Memorial would continue to be focused “on creating an
outstanding patient experience, becoming the workplace of choice
… and serving (the) community.”
“A hospital is an institution of nursing care,”
said Locke, “so Mr. O’Brien’s goals cannot possibly
be met without that nursing care in place … which makes us
wonder why management is attacking us when they should be thanking
us for our contributions, our skills and our dedication.”
“To say that the MNA bargaining unit is angry
over these issues is an understatement,” said Logan. “It
is our patients that are also under attack. If we were to accept
this contract many of our most experienced nurses would leave, and
it is the patients that will suffer. We care about our patients
and will not accept any contract that makes it difficult to retain
and recruit qualified and experienced nurses.”
The union’s current contract is set to expire
in April.
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