St. Michael Medical Center Pro Tech Kicking Off 2026 Contract Negotiations!

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On Thursday, March 26, our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer for our first day of union contract negotiations. In preparation for our first day this cycle, our team met earlier in the month to review feedback from bargaining surveys, recent wins in other union contracts, and conducted a review of our current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to pinpoint areas for improvement.
 
Across our first bargaining day we presented Management with some of our non-economic and economic proposals. As far as our initial non-economics, we proposed:

  • An amendment to the Recognition Clause (Article 1) of our contract, which aims to remedy issues experienced by per diem employees pursuing grievances with the Employer

  • New language in the definition of precepting- to address what we feel is a fleeting “defined preceptor course” as well as covering situations when a preceptor is assigned to a student

  • Additions to the discipline article that would prompt the removal of disciplinary actions from employees’ files following defined periods of time

  • Free parking for employees in designated, on-campus areas- at no cost to us!

  • The Employer would provide up to two free-of-charge replacement ID badges for employees each year if lost, damaged, or stolen

  • Grouping seniority for groups such as Pharmacists, Pharm Techs, Cardiovascular/IR/EP Techs.

For economics, so far, we have proposed increases to premiums and differentials such as:

  • Aligning shift differential, weekend premium, and preceptor pay to the rates won in the RN contract

  • A new structure to Standby pay which would pay a higher premium to employees who have a shorter time requirement to get to work when called, as well as new standby scheduling procedures to ensure call is assigned fairly, as well as new incentives for extra standby shifts in the schedule

  • A few new premiums, for instance, a hospital premium for job classifications which are shared between inpatient and outpatient, and a premium for pharmacy technicians who perform sterile compounding of hazardous materials

Overall, we wrapped up our first day feeling like things went pretty well! We even reached agreements with Management on issues like free parking, and language regarding a process for how staff can work to resolve paycheck errors- and how Management will notify us throughout the process.
 
We’re looking forward to continuing these discussions and introducing additional proposals at our next scheduled bargaining session with Management on Tuesday, March 31!
 
Our Union Bargaining Team: Robel Haile, Clinical Pharmacist; Bryson Andrews, ED Tech; Olivia Almeida, Respiratory Therapist; Merry Brandt-MacFann, CT Tech; Lara Williams-Graham, Surg Tech; Angela Roberson, EP Tech; Rob Shauger, CNA