03.09.2006

Attention All MNA/UMMC members, we got good news coverage in the Telegram & Gazette on Thursday concerning our contract struggle with management. See the story below.

While there were a few inaccuracies, the reporter presented a fair and balanced story on this situation. Now we have the opportunity to build on this coverage by writing letters to the editor.

You can use your letter to let the public know how you feel about your current working conditions, to clarify issues not covered fully by the story, and to voice your feelings about the disrespect management is showing all nurses.

Let them know how your patients are suffering from the current staffing practices. Let them know about colleagues who have left or are leaving because of the current treatment of nurses by management.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@telegram.com

Keep your letter to 250 words or less (anything longer and they won't get printed) and include your name, address and phone number.

Nurses, UMass talks heat up

Union says demands unprecedented

By Shaun Sutner WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
ssutner@telegram.com

WORCESTER—The union representing 900 nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center—University Campus is locked in increasingly heated negotiations with hospital management over a new contract.

With the Massachusetts Nurses Association’s current two-year contract set to expire next month, nurses last week picketed at the hospital to draw attention to what union leaders say is management’s unprecedented demand for concessions, most notably a freeze on pension contributions and the elimination of pensions for newly hired nurses.

Management is also seeking to reduce holidays, significantly increase part-time employees’ contributions toward their health insurance plans, slow pay increases and change the contract to a five-year term—proposals that are adamantly opposed by the union.

Patricia A. Williams, the UMass unit’s lead negotiator, maintained administrators are trying to overhaul the contract and have issued dozens of proposals for substantial changes rather than engage in the traditional give-and-take of standard contract talks.

“They’ve decided to do a slash and burn of our entire contract, all takeaways,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been doing this for 20 years.”

Hospital officials say they are simply trying to contain sharply rising costs for pensions and employee health care while planning for future expansion.

Shifting to a five-year contract, for example, would allow the hospital to better forecast costs and coordinate funding for building projects with labor costs, said Mark S. Shelton, a spokesman for the medical center.

The hospital recently opened a new $129 million emergency department and operating room suite and in the last few years also spent $65 million on building renovations. Additional planned projects include new radiology facilities and updated computer and record-keeping systems.

“UMass Memorial Medical Center’s goal is a fair and competitive contract that keeps UMass Memorial as the employer of choice in the region,” Mr. Shelton said.

Controlling the health care and pension costs of its own employees is critical if the hospital is to continue modernizing and expanding, Mr. Shelton said. This year alone the hospital will spend $82 million on health care for its work force, he said.

The hospital also wants to change the current 12-step wage scale to a 30-step scale, offering a $3-an-hour increase for the highest-paid and longest-serving employees, according to the union.

Mr. Shelton said the hospital is seeking to rein in salary costs as well as retain nurses for as long as possible.

“The era of double-digit increases is probably over,” he said. “The goal is to provide an incentive for longevity and to keep us competitive with other employers. The proposal going forward is to begin to try and bring wages more in line with increases in the cost of living.”

Mr. Shelton acknowledged that the hospital has proposed a “large number of changes.” They are aimed at creating “a more common-sense contract,” he said.

Union leaders, though, are incensed at what they see as the administration’s inflexible posture.

Meanwhile, they warn that nurses are so unhappy with the direction the contract talks have taken since they started in December that many are considering leaving for jobs elsewhere.

“We will lose our nurses. They will go to Boston,” Ms. Williams said.

And while staffing is not an issue in the contract negotiations, nurses also say hospital wards—particularly the new emergency departments — are dramatically understaffed, adding to bad worker morale. MNA officials say they are hoping to impose mandatory staffing levels via legislation that is pending on Beacon Hill, not through the contract.

The word strike is even being bandied about, though union officials take pains to note there has been no strike vote and that no one has publicly threatened to strike.

“We don’t want a strike, but if they force us into a strike situation, we’ll be on strike,” Ms. Williams said. “We’re not looking for a strike.”

Contact Shaun Sutner by e-mail at ssutner@telegram.com.