Monthly
Status Report
April,
2005
To
date, we have met with the Commonwealth on
ten occasions. There has been little progress
to
report at this time. One reason for
this lack of progress is the fact that we are
forced to negotiate your contract in the evening
hours since the commonwealth refuses to grant
union release time for negotiations as they
have always done in the past. Another reason
for this
lack of progress is that the commonwealth's
negotiating committee is composed of the Director
of Labor Relations and his assistant from the
Office of Employee Relations and the Directors
of Labor Relations from DMH, DPH (a combined
position) and from the DMR. While these people
are experienced in the area of contract negotiations,
they lack the knowledge of the day-to-day activities
at the facilities where Unit 7 members work.
Further, they lack the knowledge of the impact
on your ability to care for patients that their
policies and employment practices have.
We will continue to meet in order to achieve our
stated goal of making Unit 7 positions more competitive
with the private sector. Only when that happens
will state facilities and offices have the ability
to recruit and retain staff and only then will
you have the ability to provide the care that your
patients deserve.
