Contract Negotiations

First Day of Bargaining:

Tentative Agreement on 5 Items

Your CNA RN Bargaining Team met on Thurs. Sept. 8 across the table from management for the first bargaining session. Many of your RN colleagues attended the opening of the session – ask them what they thought. We made an opening statement that said: Nurses ARE the hospital – to patients, their families, the community. Nurses spoke loud and clear in the election: things must change at St. John’s – power will be shared from now on. Nurses will no longer be passive spectators watching from the sidelines, but will participate in the decisions that affect their patients and themselves. We then presented specific, detailed written proposals.

To download a copy of the Tentative Bargaining Agreement flyer, click here.

Your RN Negotiating Team’s
non-economic proposals:

Nurse/patient ratios
Safe patient handling
Dedicated meal/break relief RNs
RN role in decisions about new technology
No discrimination
RNs cannot be disciplined without JUST CAUSE
Grievance procedure to ENFORCE contract
Union representation in discipline cases
Preserving RN work for SJ staff RNs
Professional Practice Committee to fight for patient and RN safety
No canceling shifts, no mandatory floating
Seniority protection on layoff/recall
Current RNs get first crack at newly posted SJ jobs
Employer must post work schedules 6 weeks in advance
RN uniforms in one color provided and maintained by SJHC
Union security (i.e., dues – you can expect management to play this one up)
RN self-scheduling
Every other weekend off

Your RN Bargaining Team is:

Chris Busch, Pre-Op
Jack Cline, Med Surg
Lori Hammond, L & D
Richard Krutosik, Radiology
Donna Schonlaw, Pre-Op

Tentative Agreements
Late in the day, management presented us with non-economic proposals. We are still reviewing the proposals, but your RN negotiating team was able to agree to five of management’s proposals that were close enough to what RNs have indicated that they want in the first contract that we could agree on them:

Just Cause Discipline — management will not be able to discipline or fire RNs without demonstrating Just Cause
Health and Safety — Employer agrees to maintain a safe & healthy workplace
Access to union reps — RNs will be able to engage with CNA reps in the workplace
Two procedural matters about respectful communication between the parties & protecting the contract against future legal challenges

Next Steps
However, many of management’s proposals, at first glance, appeared to be unacceptable to Saint John’s RNs based on the bargaining team’s impressions and the bargaining surveys turned in by Saint John’s RNs. We will be discussing our proposals and management’s proposals with RNs in depth in the coming weeks.

Economic proposals will come later. We need more input from all of you before making our push for wages, hours, benefits and other economic terms. For now, we’re fighting for patient care tools, the basic rights of RNs as employees, and RN professional respect issues.

Why is it taking so long?
We initially offered Saint John’s management 90 potential bargaining dates. Management has agreed to four dates so far: 9/22, 10/25, 11/1, 11/16 and tentatively 11/9. The management team told us they cannot meet to negotiate without Eleanor Ramirez, COO and that she is unavailable except for these dates. RNs must continue to push management to agree to more bargaining dates.

Important Information

Next bargaining date: Sept. 22, 2011 10:00 am (location TBA) all RNs encouraged to attend

Copies of the union and management proposals will be provided to RNs via email, or talk to your FBC Rep. If you don’t know who your FBC Rep is call James Moy 818 433 2119 or Joe Newlin 323 333 4808

All agreements at the table are “tentative” until RNs vote on a final contract