Conifer Saint Michael Medical Center Little Progress Made

On October 22 and 23 our Bargaining Team met with Conifer Revenue Cycle Solutions Management for contract negotiations. These were our fourth and fifth sessions since August. We traded many proposals on most of the economic issues and managed to reach agreement on one more day of paid bereavement leave. However, we had an extremely frustrating conversation with Management about existing language in the contract regarding holidays. Since 2021 when our last contract was ratified, folks who work on holidays receive a full day of straight time holiday pay in addition to time-and-a-half for the hours worked. This is the equivalent of double-time-and-a-half for those who choose to work on holidays. Management now wants to take this benefit away from people who work on holidays, so that they receive only overtime pay.

We tried to explore with Management ideas for how to move forward but were unable to come to a resolution on this issue. They continued to propose this take-away repeatedly and we ended the day without persuading them to drop it. The Employer has so far failed to even propose anything on wages and health care, insisting instead that we agree to this takeaway before even discussing larger economic issues!

EMERGENCY ORGANIZING MEETING TO DEFEND OUR HOLIDAY PAY Thursday, November 7 @ 5pm on Zoom >

Meeting ID: 885 7328 4174 Passcode: 676069
Please join us to discuss how we can defend our contract!

“Conifer says they want to take away holiday pay as it exists now in the contract, but for three years this benefit has existed for us at St Michael Medical Center, and they haven’t gone out of business yet. Their buyer’s remorse is not our problem, and we aren’t asking for much.”- Nicole Peschon, Coding Specialist

Our Union Bargaining Team: Linnea Ellis, Patient Access Representative; Nicole Peschon, Coding Specialist