Jun 29, 2008  
Bargaining – 6/27/08
 
As another example of 'disrespect', after Charlie sited the outcome of the vote to the other side of the bargaining table, Tom Dowdalls, management's chief negotiator, tried to spin the vote towards their favor by saying that over half of the service unit did NOT vote with the union. You have to shake your head in disbelief! We knew they would try to 'spin' our win. But this is the tired, irrational rationale the Neumeister administration used about three years ago after the RNs' voted to strike...

Today, after the administration arrived, we started with a discussion about the "last, best and final" offer given to us by the administration at our previous meeting, and how, afterwards, our membership responded to it. Charlie, our chief negotiatior, pointedly initiated the discussion by saying management's offer was put to a vote by the union on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 24 and 25, and was rejected by our membership by an overwhelming margin. With an almost 70% turnout of the service unit our side won by more than a 2 to 1 margin.

Actual numbers: 435 voted out of a total 633 eligible service unit members. This "total eligible" number sometimes seems to be a moving target. Over the last month or so, the administration seemed to be regularly increasing it. The last number given was 659. Be that, as it may be, the 2 to 1 margin is a big jump over the much smaller edge we had in April of 2004, when we won the right of union representation after a long union-busting propaganda blitz by the Neumeister administration. Our 2 to 1 margin was accomplished despite a large job turnover rate in the service unit: 57% since the 2004 vote. Even though most of our membership is "new," we apparently know an uncaring, under-paying and incompetent administration when we see one.

The final 'score' was 291 NO votes to 143 YES votes, with 1 double-marked ballot. Though it's a 2 to 1 margin, the 143 votes for the administration's 'status quo' contract shows us there are at least 143 of our coworkers who don't feel the need for a change, and who don't feel the disrespect – and even humiliation – shown by our administration that the rest of us feel. Turning a deaf ear to the needs of our coworkers who are understaffed, and virtually thumbing their noses at those who are underpaid, is disrespectful, especially coming from very well paid administrators in control of a hospital that makes millions of dollars in profits year after year.

The ghost of Dan Neumeister...
As another example of 'disrespect,' after Charlie sited the outcome of the vote to the other side of the bargaining table, Tom Dowdalls, management's chief negotiator, tried to spin the vote towards their favor by saying that over half of the service unit did NOT vote with the union. You have to shake your head in disbelief!

We knew they would try to 'spin' our win. But this is the tired, irrational rationale the Neumeister administration used about three years ago after the RNs' voted to strike to get stalled negotiations moving for their new contract. Live and DON'T learn!

Of course, Charlie called Dowdalls on their 'logic.' Perhaps Carol Linscheid, the VP of Human Resources, forgot what she said in an email and a letter to all of us, "If 100 employees vote, 51 will decide the outcome." This is the nature of the democratic process. Those who vote decide the outcome. When is the last time we had the majority of an electorate voting in a national or state election?

Still, dawdling Dowdalls snickered that our win was not overwhelming, implying that the 200, or so, who did not vote were, in effect, voting against their union. I know! Of course, you could just as easily say those non-voters were voting AGAINST the administration. In reality, the 143 who actually voted for the administration's status quo, was less than a quarter of those eligible to vote. We had high hopes for the Debi Yancer administration, but with her out 'on leave' those running the show are acting as if Neumeister was still in command; thus, I suppose, explaining the 'status quo' proposals by management.

Then Charlie mentioned a paraphrased quote by Linscheid in the 6/26/08 Enterprise-Record about the union's recent wage and benefits proposal, and how the hospital couldn’t afford to pay the increases the service unit was asking for. The reported statement was denied – as a misquote – by Linscheid over the table. We are left to make our own conclusions.

The union tries one more time...
Next, we returned to the point of bargaining. Charlie questioned if management was close to any movement on their last offer from the previous meeting. Though Dowdalls said that it would not be a waste of time for us to counter their proposal, one got the impression from his glare and the snippiness of his remarks that they really were not interested in bargaining. They said they would take a look at what we came back to offer.

The administration left us, and we caucused. We worked a good part of the day trying to make some movement in the administration's direction without giving up our insistence on the industry standards that we have fought for all along. Some of us argued that the administration was not serious about really considering any of our proposals, that they were 'playing' us, that they were still in their "intimidation" mode, and that we should strike them as soon as was possible. The majority, however, wanted to try one more time. So, we batted around many ideas, and came up with several modified proposals, including an innovation on our wage scales that we think will save the hospital quite a bit of money while still getting us to the Red Bluff industry standards.

Just as we were finishing up, management came to tell us they were leaving for the day. We asked them to stay and at least hear what we had to say, but Dowdalls said we could email it to him if we "really want to." Again, it appeared by Dowdalls' curt response that they had no real desire to continue negotiating at this point. They hurriedly left.

Charlie and one of our union researchers will meet this weekend and put the finishing touches on our wage proposal. They will come up early next week and go over it with the bargaining team, and then email it to Dowdalls. Management said they will review it and meet again with us on 7/14/08. We will learn then whether or not the other side accepts what should be our "last, best and final" offer. If they don't, we will then be forced to decide when to strike.

"Strike before closing"
No one wants to strike, but we will if we are forced to. We want to bring these contract negotiations to a fair closure, and we are tired of being 'played' by this quasi-Neumeister administration.

Remember, an important part of our struggle is about patient safety that only comes with safe staffing, the kind of staffing that will not permit our coworkers to be overworked and stretched to the limit. Many now work double shifts because of low staffing. Low wages also force them to work long hours to make ends meet. Others have also been sent home on low census due to productivity quotas even though work is backed up. Patients, community and staff need to feel that Enloe is a safe place to heal and work. The hospital's public image and worker morale need to be lifted up. It is about patient safety, safe staffing, job security and fair wages with the emphasis on the safety that will come from communication between management, staff and of course our patients. Employee satisfaction should be a big part of the Planetree concept.

We all know about the poor 19% satisfaction rating our administration got from our employees via their Gallup survey. Below is a comparison of patient attitudes as can be gleaned from the website: http://www.hospital-data.com/.

........................ENLOE...ST.ELIZ...MERCY-REDD...State Avg...Nation Avg.    
How do patients rate the hospital overall?
High rating..........48%..........67%...............65%.................60%...............63%
Medium rati.........32%..........25%...............27%.................27%...............26%
Low rating...........20%............8%.................8%.................13%...............11%

Would patients recommend the hospital to friends and family?
Definitely would..53%..........75%...............76%.................65%...............67%
Probably.............36%..........22%................21%................28%...............27%
Definitely not......11%............3%..................3%..................7%.................6%

If Enloe was not the only hospital in town, we probably would be closing our doors, what with all the dissatisfaction around.

All service unit employees are welcome to the next bargaining session on Monday, July 14th (Bastille Day!), at the Oxford Suites from around 9:30am to 5pm. If you have any questions, please call Jim North at 521-6723.

ALSO – For a comparison of our executive officers' salaries with their counterparts at other hospitals in our "market survey," see the link for "The North Wind" (June 29, 2008) on the home page of this website: http://enloemedicine.org/.