Latest Newsletter for South Shore Hospital Nurses - 12/2000

A message from your organizing committee!

The day we have waited for is finally here.  The hospital spent heavily on their union buster and succeeded in delaying the election for 4 months.  Their goal was to buy time to bust our union.  Unfortunately, we still have more coming in the days ahead, but the end is finally in sight.  We need to stand strong in these final days and commit publicly to our support of our union.  This public declaration will tell the hospital that you have rejected their anti-union campaign and are ready to build the solid foundation needed for the contract negotiations that will follow.

A MESSAGE FROM DENISE GARLICK RN, MNA PRESIDENT AND KAREN HIGGINS RN, MNA CHAIR OF LABOR RELATIONS CABINET
 
 We would like to address the information contained in a recent issue of Nurse Future, a communication from hospital administration designed to persuade you to vote against the MNA as your professional association and your collective bargaining agent.

 Politics is the study of power. There is politics on the unit on which you work; politics involved in your struggle for this vote; and politics at the MNA. The politics at the MNA is surely especially alarming to your hospital administration because it is a triumph of staff nurses. The staff nurses are joined by many nurses in other roles to support an agenda to protect and empower nurses, preserve our profession and strengthen our ability to safely care and advocate for all our patients. The MNA members voices do count. Missing from the Nurse Future article was the fact that 62% of the nurses attending convention voted to disaffiliate from ANA. They believe that ANA takes a moderate approach on all issues. In today’s health care environment, that is not good enough. 
The members of the MNA Board who resigned did so of their own accord. The Board of Directors then followed their by-laws to appoint other members to replace them so that business could continue.

 The SSH administration hears a rumble in the distance and wants you to believe that it is turmoil and chaos--what it cannot risk is that you know the truth. That nurses in Massachusetts have found their power; that they are stepping out from the shadow of the management dominated ANA and any other entity whose actions may harm our profession. 

We are commanding our resources (staff, money and time) to meet the needs of our nurses, our profession and our patients. We are ready, willing and able to lead. So are you. Vote for MNA representation on January 5, 2001

VALLEY REGIONAL NURSES RATIFY FIRST CONTRACT!

On December 8, 2000 nurses at Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, NH voted to ratify their first contract.  In a historic union election held on January 21, 1999, the registered nurses of VRH voted for union representation by the Massachusetts Nurses Association.  The nurses are the only private sector, acute care hospital nurses unionized in New Hampshire.

We would like to share some of the highlights of the nurses’ new contract with you:
 

• An agreement that there will be no mandatory overtime for nurses.  Nurses may continue to volunteer to work overtime if needed to meet patient care requirements.

• Establishment of a Nursing Committee composed of staff nurses and nursing directors.  Immediately upon ratification this committee will review staffing to reach agreement on appropriate staffing for each unit, and will continue to meet to discuss staffing issues on a monthly bases.

• The establishment of a salary scale inclusive of three nursing pay grades.  Nurses will be placed on the scale based on their total years of service as a registered nurse.

• An increase in both evening and night differentials.

• Language to ensure safe “floating” of nurses within the facility.

• Guaranteed orientation programs for nurses accepting a position in a new area.

COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q.  Will our per diem nurses lose their flexibility in scheduling work hours due to the vote for MNA?

 A.  NO.  Per diem nurses will for the first time be able to have a voice in how decisions are made concerning their wages, hours and conditions of employment including the requirements for per diem status at South Shore.
 

Q.  Why is it important to authorize the use of my name on the YES flyer?

A.  We are attempting to build a strong union for all the nurses at South Shore Hospital.  We ask people to declare as a show of strength in the face of the anti-union campaign.  Nurses need to reject the hospital’s campaign and send the message that they are ready to stand on their own and no longer rely on management to “take care of them.”  It is not unusual in this country for people who support a movement or campaign to endorse the effort publicly in order to help it succeed.  If you have not already authorized, please contact a committee person.
 

Q.  Management is saying that nurses can bump us out of our jobs when we vote in the union.  Is that true?

A.  At this point management will say anything possible in order to steer you away from the union.  In truth, all decisions that formerly rested solely in the hands of management will now be made through the joint process of negotiations.  Your elected nurse leaders, based on surveys and information from open meetings, will negotiate the process of RIFs and all other matters that affect or may affect nurses.  Only after you have agreed (ratification) will any changes take place.
 

Q.  Did nurses at Quincy Hospital lose benefits as a result of the threatened closing a few months ago?

A.  Nurses at Quincy Hospital were able to be involved in the decision making process throughout the unfortunate ordeal that threatened the Hospital.  Absent union status the nurses would not have had any say as the process unfolded.  Quincy nurses voted through a democratic process to accept temporary concessions in order to help the hospital survive.  They have subsequently recovered all concessions.
 

Q.  What is the next step after we win the election?

A.  After we win the election, open meetings will be held for all the nurses at South Shore Hospital.  During the next 4 weeks you will work, with the assistance of MNA representatives, to develop the bylaws by which you will operate your union.  The bylaws will determine total union structure including the number and location of the nurse representatives you will elect, frequency of union meetings, length of term of elected officers, what constitutes a quorum, the number of nurses on the negotiating team, and what other committees you will adopt. Following a vote to approve the bylaws you will have an election to fill the offices you have created.  Once your officers and negotiating team is elected they will begin working with an MNA representative to develop proposals compiled from the recent surveys you completed.  Once the proposals are finalized they will be brought back to all the nurses in the bargaining unit for final approval.  Once approved they will be submitted to management and the bargaining process will begin.
 

Q.  Management claims that the management rights clause contained in MNA contracts gives the hospital the power to operate the hospital as they see fit, leaving little room for nurses to have a say over staffing, workplace redesign, or other issues impacting your practice and patient care.  Is this true?

A.  What they fail to point out about the “management rights” clauses is the meaning of a very important sentence imbedded in every MNA contract that contains this clause.  For example, in the management rights clause of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, the opening sentence contains this phrase:  “The University of Massachusetts Medical Center, except as otherwise limited by a provision of this agreement or by any statute or law, shall have the right…”  This clause obligates the hospital to honor anything that is in the contract.  In other words, the contract and everything that is in it is subject to negotiations with the union.  There can be no unilateral management decision and/or action on any issue addressed in that contract.  In the case of University of Massachusetts Medical Center, the MNA contract has specific provisions about a number of issues related to staffing and workplace redesign.

Who is your Organizing Committee

• Lee Ann Wood 
• Paul Zaborski 
• Kathleen Spurr
• Julia Simonds 
• Cynthia Shaughnessy 
• Barbara Robins
• Kathleen Donaghey 
• Deborah Erwin 
• Rosemary Regan
• Madeline Fehan 
• Robert Abbadessa 
• Christine Addison
• Pamela Agni 
• Suzanne Ames 
• Kathleen Barrett
• Chris Barrette 
• Lisa Beal 
• Marianne Bennett
• Elizabeth Boland 
• Paula Dion 
• Eileen Mann
• Liz Hatch 
• Lynda Reynolds 
• Kathryn Goldrick
• Pat Wentink 
• Sandra Reno 
• Kathy Friedman
• Joan Ford 
• Diane Brady 
• Edwina Brinkley
• Jayne Broydrick 
• Douglas Caldwell 
• Elizabeth Conway-Treanor
• Lynn Darmetko 
• William Pearson 
• Kerri Harrington
• Deborah Keough 
• Carolyn Inglis 
• Sheila King
• Lisa Manolakis 
• Kathleen Massey 
• Marjorie Murphy
• Janet Muscato 
• Robert Jones 
• Laura Nardone

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