We’ve been waiting a long time for management to respond to our proposals. Yesterday, March 9th, management came back with counter proposals and their responses once again echoed more of the same, “no, no, no.” This is absolutely not acceptable.
Management also made proposals to make changes to the grievance timeliness. These changes are unnecessary and were a distraction from our important issues.
They seemingly ignored our presentations on the staffing crisis we face each day. All of our proposed staffing changes were REJECTED by them.
Management continued to disregard some other top concerns. They completely rejected our proposals on Call-In Pay, Late Cancellation by Management, Improved Nurse Staffing Ratios, Full-Time Weekend Shifts for 10 Hour Employees, Pay for Emergency Work, Promotional Pay, and On-Call Pay, in addition to our COLA and market adjustments.
They also sought changes to some of the articles that protect your rights and job security. Management was looking for changes to the disciplinary articles that simply made no sense and eroded some of your rights.
We are hopeful that management wants to reach a fair and equitable contract. In order to achieve this they need to listen to the workforce and seriously consider our proposals. Your team and all members who have participated sent that message loud and clear.
We are optimistic that our next bargaining session will be more productive and that the management team will come better prepared and looking to reach a fair settlement for our contract. We have been able to do that in the past and we should be able to do that again.
Please look out for our next bargaining date which is TBD. Be ready to support the bargaining team in person and show our strength in numbers!