Apr 29, 2008  
Bargaining -- 4/28/08
 
If we don’t support our bargaining team and each other, we won’t get what we need: a fair contract that guarantees us the same staffing, job security, benefits, etc., that other union hospital employees enjoy. This will be not accomplished easily or by just a few. It will take the help of many, and that should be all of us in the Service Unit at Enloe.

Today we clarified what articles are still outstanding and which side needs to respond to them. These included both economic and non-economic issues. Administration reasserted that wages could get resolved after all others are dealt with and agreed on. This being said, Charlie, our chief negotiator, responded that the hardest issues are left. The members are not asking for anything that has not already been agreed on at other north state hospitals.

The following articles are still outstanding:

Non-Economic:      
1. Subcontracting      
2. Standards Preserved    
3. Union Shop / Cope
4. Grievance and Arbitration        
5. No Strike no Lockout        
6. Committees  
7. Field Reps and Steward Visits      
8. Change of Ownership or Foreclosures etc.
9. Organizing Rights
10. Amnesties for Disciplined Members

Economic:
1. Classification and Wages
2. PTO and ESL
3. Health Plan
4. Retirement
5. Training Fund
6. Term of Contract
7. Wage Scales

Administration needs to respond to:
-- Article 11: COPE
-- Article 22: PTO and ESL
-- Appendix A: Wage Scales

The Union owes response to:
-- Article 32: Committees. We especially want staffing problems that cannot be resolved in the staffing committee to go to neutral, third party, binding arbitration; Administration just wants an advisory process, which in effect could just ignore our staffing problems.
-- Article 36: Union Reps and Stewards
-- Article 38: Change of Ownership: Merger, Sale, Closure and Transfer

After this discussion and question period to clarify issues like third party binding arbitration, linking articles such as Grievance and Arbitration with No Strike-No Lockout language, and Organizing Rights -- all of which will help not only our union members but all of the hospital’s employees -- we broke for lunch and caucused on the team’s next response to Field Reps/Stewards and Change of Ownership/Foreclosures.

After lunch, we gave our counter proposals on the two Articles with some changes in order to try to move negotiations along:

-- Change of Ownership is mostly the same with exception to time limits. The Employer will notify us of change 60 days in advance. For closures the Union Members will get 4 months notice.
-- On Field Reps and Stewards. The Reps will:
.......Wear Badges provided by the hospital.
.......Give 24 hours’ notice for restricted areas.
.......Give one hour’s notice for escort in behavioral health areas.
.......We proposed a ban on Reps in patient rooms.

After questions by Administration, they withdrew to caucus on the two counter proposals. By 5pm Administration phoned that they would have their response the next morning.

As was said, we have gotten to the hard stuff, and we will not get this done in a room with only 15 team members. If Administration does not think that our members back us, it does us no good at bargaining.

Thanks to all who came to the informational picket last Friday; but some were too busy to show, or maybe it was not important. When employees – such as support clerks, who are paid $4800 below standards -- are compared to those at St. Elizabeth’s, Mercy in Redding or Mercy in Shasta, or when they are denied pensions, job security, fair benefits or protection from layoffs, outsourcing or foreclosures, is it no wonder we need union protection from all this? Remember the outsourcing of Dietary and Housekeeping? What about the layoff carnage of 180 coworkers, about half of them members of our union?

Because of the management’s unilateral and arbitrary layoffs last year, we at the Children’s Center lost our scheduler and had to pick up extra duties that put us behind, compromising work and patient flow. Another had hours reduced that could ill be afforded. But our members struck resulting in the CEO restoring lost jobs, though only for union members; just ask Business Office employees about not getting jobs back. Still, incredulously, people don’t trust our union; even after we got our nurse assistants, unit secretaries, support clerks, and others their jobs restored.

If we don’t support our bargaining team and each other, we won’t get what we need: a fair contract that guarantees us the same staffing, job security, benefits, etc., that other union hospital employees enjoy. This will be not accomplished easily or by just a few. It will take the help of many, and that should be all of us in the Service Unit at Enloe. So let’s get together and get this done. The present bargaining team members won’t be around forever. We need new blood and for all to take this seriously. I, myself, will be retiring in November with a pension; it’s small but a hundred times more than a lot of Enloe workers will get: nothing. We all need some kind of retirement to fall back on; just a thought.

Next bargaining is tomorrow.