Jefferson HealthCare RN - Bargaining Team Update

We met with Management on Tuesday, October 26, and gave them our counter proposals. Their proposals have concentrated on the two “R” s, Recruitment and Retention, and we agree with these areas of focus. 

We have included a third “R”, Restructure, as we work through these negotiations.

Their initial wage proposal, designed to make for better Recruitment, only brought us to a little above the average of the hospitals they feel are our “market” and still behind 3 of the 6 hospitals, hardly competitive. Our proposal will make us above average and more likely to attract nurses to work here.

For the Retention part we refined their offer to better recognize our past experience when hiring and to allow for an appeal process for those that feel that they are at an incorrect wage step. 

We are trying to strengthen the Restructure process to give the hospital greater ability to cover the swings in acuity and census that we see every day, by defining Helper-Float RNs, Cross Trained RNs and to compensate us if we are floated outside the areas specified in the Restructure Letter of Understanding.

The hospital presented us with a counter proposal to a scheduling proposal we had given them in an attempt to improve the scheduling process, especially in the ACU.

Please contact any of the Bargaining Team nurses for details.

Our Jefferson Healthcare RN Bargaining Team: Ben Schadler, RN ICU; Melanee Knudson, RN FBC; Jeannette Hundley, RN Surgical Services; Robin Bridge, RN ED; Ryan DeGouveia, UFCW 21; Cathy Macphail, UFCW 21