Dec 11, 2007  
Bargaining – 12/10/07

As always, we were hopeful to sign off on at least one or two articles this session.

The administration started with their counter-proposal on Article 35: Change of Ownership, Mergers, Sale, Closures and Transfers. This article seems to cover every way to unload or close our hospital; not that this will happen, so said the administration.

There were two major stumbling points:
  1.  Notification of Change
With closures, the union wanted 6 months notice, but the hospital only 60 days. For everything else, the union wanted 90 days, and the administration offered just 30 days.
  2.  Successor (new owner)
The union wants the administration to require a new owner to retain all bargaining unit members and recognize its existing contract. The administration said it won’t bargain with a new owner on our behalf in order to keep and protect the union and employees.

The union feels it could compromise on time frames for closure and everything else, but not on the obligation of a new owner to work with and honor the union members and their contract. We feel they want to ditch their obligation to us. No TA on Article 35!

After lunch the administration gave us their counter-proposal on Article 6: Subcontracting. According to their counter, the administration will notify the union 30 days in advance of any subcontracting in order to bargain over the effects of this change.

The union wants to bargain with the employer, first, over any subcontracting. Management says it will give us a veto power over any decision by management in this matter. We say that with the administration's proposal, union members could loose their jobs at the stroke of a pen because management retains the right to dump the union without any job protection. The new contractor could keep or lay off members as it so wished. The bargaining team told the administration we were disappointed and would hold to our proposal. No TA on Article 6!

We also discussed amnesty terms for union members who were disciplined for standing up for their fellow workers, but the administration said no go. They insist the NLRB turned down the union's appeals over this discipline, so case closed. The bargaining team said this shows that management doesn’t want to work to heal poor relations; that they still treat us as if we were a virus. We will leave this matter for now.

The union reminded the administration that quite awhile ago we requested the list of hospitals used by the administration for their market surveys. These are the surveys they use to decide if raises should be granted. The administration said that market adjustments don’t apply to the service unit employees. Charlie, our chief negotiator, said that the hospital has no reason not to pay service unit employees the wage adjustment, and that, at least, past lists should be made available to us. The administration disagreed.

The next bargaining session is on Friday, 12/14/07 at the Oxford Suites. Anyone is welcome to sit in. We hope you'll take an active interest in the bargaining process; it’s our contract, and it will affect all of our work lives at Enloe for a few years. Please come.

PC