Bargaining unit updates

Worcester School Nurses
Worcester School Nurses continue in mediation. A grievance was won on behalf of a nurse who was denied her appropriate step raise. An additional grievance was settled involving overpayment to a nurse.

West Springfield School Nurses
West Springfield School Nurses have met to begin the process of gathering proposals for upcoming negotiations. Additionally, an election for new officers is underway. Mercy Medical Center Mercy Medical Center nurses have been in negotiations since October and have filed for Federal Mediation. The nurses are particularly concerned about the many takeaways and attacks to nurses’ professional practice at a time when so many unsafe staffing forms are being filed. The economics proposals are also a problem.

Jordan Hospital
The Jordan Hospital MNA staff nurses have formed a Peer Support Team. Members of the team have training in conflict management and communication. The mission of the team is to provide a non-biased, confidential environment for conflict resolution within the workplace. All meetings are strictly on a voluntary basis. The goal of the Peer Support Team is to foster a positive work environment by helping to facilitate constructive, collaborative interaction among peers. It is hoped that nurses will feel free to voice their concerns in a confidential, non-judgmental and non-punitive environment. In addition, the nurses at Jordan Hospital are preparing for elections. The consent to serve forms are in the mail.

MetroWest Medical Center/Leonard Morse
The nurses at MetroWest Medical Center/Leonard Morse are in negotiations. The key issues on the table include proposals by the nurses to set safer staffing levels, to limit mandatory overtime, to establish a float pool and for a competitive salary scale with other hospitals in the region. They now have their own Web site and are posting up-dates to the site.

Caritas Norwood Hospital
RNs at Caritas Norwood Hospital are in negotiations. The committee has surveyed the bargaining unit and held open meetings on Jan. 31 to define the priority issues, which include retiree health insurance and language to protect nurses’ union rights in the light of the ‘Kentucky River’ decision from the National Labor Relations Board.

VNA of Cape Cod
It was a stunning blow when Cape Cod Healthcare offered early retirement packages last fall and five of our 65 RNs offered to accept the offer. New employees, however, are coming in, some successfully, others not so. With the union leadership present, we are challenging VNA to come up with a better, more structured precepting program to ensure the success of those hard to come by new employees. This has been an ongoing topic at labor-management meetings and we will not stop pushing for the best precepting program until it is where it should be. We have had a few grievances, including a step-3 grievance for a wrongful termination. The word from the staff, once again, is that management is coming down on overtime and productivity. Members should not let management intimidate them into doing a less than adequate or rushed job, because they are worried about overtime and finances. Bottom line to members—if you didn’t write it down, then you didn’t do it. So type away and make your notes as thorough, yet concise as they need to be. We will be having elections this spring for the chair and secretary positions and for site reps for Hospice, Hyannis, Evenings and Dennis. Also, we need new grievance reps and staff to sit on the transient election and bylaws committee.

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