“We’re eagerly awaiting the employer’s response to our economic proposal.”

Our Bargaining Team: Shirley Messner, Rosandra Fedorko, Molly Werder

Your bargaining team met with management again on October 22 and 27 to continue negotiations for your successor contract.

After conducting a comprehensive market analysis on wages, we finally presented our initial economic proposal to management on October 22. Prior to presenting, we had to warn the employer that our proposal to increase wages may be shocking, but that is only because Conifer’s wages are shockingly behind other employers in the region. 

This problem has dramatically worsened recently as employers have been forced to significantly increase wages to compete in a tight labor market and to keep up with the historic rate of inflation. We will be presenting market data to the employer soon to back-up our proposal for significant wage increases, fighting to relieve our staffing issues and recognize the skyrocketing cost of living. 

Unfortunately, management did not have a response to our wage proposal when we returned this week. While we have made some significant progress on non-economic language issues, we are severely disappointed that we haven’t been able to move forward with wages. We are hoping that the employer will finally have a proposal ready when we meet again on November 2.