Massachusetts Nurse | September 2004

19 sessions and 11 months later, nurses at Marlborough ratify contract
Includes stellar language specific to ATB increases and pension securities

On July 21, the MNA bargaining unit at the Marlborough Hospital Campus of UMass Memorial ratified a new two-year contract that guarantees nurse members several outstanding—and long overdue—benefits, including a 12.5 percent across-the-board salary increase, protections to the bargaining unit’s defined benefit (pension) plan, and language that defines and limits the use of mandatory overtime.

According to Carol Palazzi, RN and chairperson of the bargaining unit at Marlborough, the ratification vote was overwhelmingly in support of the proposed contract settlement—with 98 percent of the vote in favor ratification.

"The MNA members at Marlborough had worked tirelessly to secure the rights and benefits that are outlined in this new contract," said Palazzi. "We're proud of the work we did. We're excited about what we've been able to secure with this contract. And we’re grateful that management at Marlborough realized that some of its proposed take aways/changes were harmful to the very nurses who provide expert care of the highest quality to the hospital’s patients."

The fight for a secure pension
Reaching a ratification vote did not come easily for the bargaining unit though, especially since hospital management refused to acknowledge the conviction of the nurses' position on one particular issue for almost the entire 11 months of the contract talks: the proposal to change the nurses’ defined benefit plan to a highly inferior defined contribution plan.

With a defined benefit pension plan, the employer is obligated to provide a guaranteed contribution to the employees' pension and is obligated to provide a guaranteed level of retirement benefit to the employee regardless of the investment returns of the plan. With the defined contribution plan that was proposed by Marlborough Hospital management, both the employer and the employee would have had to make contributions to a 401K-type retirement investment plan—with the investment risk being borne entirely by the nurses. For some nurses at the hospital, the change to a defined contribution plan could have resulted in as much as a two-thirds cut in retirement benefits.

"The hospital's proposed plan was substantially inferior to the current retirement benefit," said Palazzi, "and its implementation could have had an enormous impact on the quality of a retiree’s life."

The members at Marlborough fought hard against this proposed change, and they used several labor/organizing tactics that helped to turn the tides in their favor. In May, they took to the street outside of the hospital and held a day-long informational picket—the first such picket by nurses at Marlborough in more than 20 years. And in June members participated in a second informational picket, only this time it coincided with the hospital's annual "Safe Summer Fun Day"—a major public relations event for the hospital and one that provided RNs with the perfect opportunity to tell the community how management was aiming to dismantle their pension plan.

"We had also started the process of setting up meetings with local legislators, including Rep. Stephen LeDuc," added Kevin McManus, RN and former vice chairperson of the bargaining unit at Marlborough. "It was at this point that we began to make real headway on the key issues that had turned this negotiation into an 11-month struggle."

The key results
In addition to its fight to maintain the defined benefit plan, the bargaining unit also negotiated hard to secure pay that was on par with other UMass facilities and language that defined and limited mandatory overtime. By the end of their nineteenth negotiation session on July 12, the nurses had made substantial progress on all fronts. The settlement included:

• Defined benefit plan: All nurses who are hired prior to October 1, 2004, including nurses not currently eligible for the pension plan due to working insufficient hours and who subsequently become eligible, will have the opportunity to continue with the current pension plan or convert to a defined contribution plan. The hospital will encourage and provide retirement counseling by an independent consultant to assist nurses with this decision. In addition, no proposed modification to the defined benefit plan can be made prior to fiscal year 2020.
• Wage increases: All nurses will receive a 12.5 percent across-theboard pay increase over the course of the two-year contract, with the first increase being paid retroactively to April 1, 2004 at a rate of 3.5 percent and an additional 3 percent increase being implemented in October 2004, April 2005 and September 2005.
• Mandatory overtime: The new language states that the hospital will work to maintain full staffing in order that overtime work be kept to a minimum. When overtime is necessary, the hospital will work to find volunteers to fill this need. In the case that appropriate coverage cannot be found, the hospital can only request that a nurse work a reasonable amount of overtime, provided that he/she works no more than 12 hours. The hospital also agreed to maintain an "overtime list" by reverse seniority in each department, and it recognized that any nurse may refuse overtime for reasons related to personal fatigue or personal illness. Additionally, there was new language added to the contract specifying that no nurse shall be required to work overtime hours more than eight times in one calendar year.
• Increase in differentials: Night shift differentials were increased to $4.00 per hour, with a second increase to be implemented on Sept. 25, 2005 (to $4.50 per hour). In addition, on-call differentials were increased to $3.75 per hour.