Over 3,000 HPAE Members Win New Contracts:
Unity Makes the Difference!

HPAE members in northeastern New Jersey entered the spring with a lot to do.

Five contracts covering almost 3,000 workers at five unaffiliated institutions were due to expire on the same date - June 1st - while over 400 registered nurses represented by HPAE were still struggling to win their first union contract at Christ Hospital in Jersey City. 

HPAE members also began negotiations in a climate where hospital managements were reducing benefits, such as pensions, while forcing employees to assume more of the costs for health insurance.

Rather than treat each contract campaign as a separate, unrelated event, local union leaders decided to organize their members in one collective effort. Their goal was to be able to bring the maximum amount of pressure to bear in each of the respective negotiations. 

A common agenda for the negotiations was developed that centered around 3 major issues: staffing, improving pension benefits, and winning equitable wage increases. Each of the respective local unions was fiercely committed to their common agenda; holding a massive “Unity Rally” on May 25th to re-confirm their solidarity. 

By the morning of June 2nd, the plan had worked: negotiations at 5 of the 6 institutions had concluded successfully. 

The stubborn “holdout” was Bergen Regional, where management refused to agree to any reasonable settlement. However, because a unity “network” had already been established, HPAE members from around the state were able to rally to the side of the Bergen Regional workers in their struggle. That unity - along with significant pressure from local Bergen County politicians - made the difference in ending the strike in favor of Local 5091 members on June 22nd. 

Contract Reports: HPAE Members Build on Prior Success

Staffing:
HPAE members were able to either establish or begin the process of establishing staffing ratios at their institutions were none had previously existed. Locals that already had staffing ratios were able to lower existing ratios to facilitate better patient care.

*Englewood, Pascack Valley, UMDNJ and Cooper: medical/surgical units: 1:6 on days shifts, 1:7 or 1:8 evenings/nights respectively.
*Bayonne: current ratios to be extended to units not previously covered. *Palisades: staff to be added for nursing units, and technical/service depts.
*Christ Hospital and Meadowlands: ratios to be established during the contract through a joint labor/management committee.

Benefits:
During a time of benefit cuts and increased medical insurance costs for workers, all HPAE locals held the line on preventing benefit cuts or major increased co-payments. Current pension benefits and programs were maintained at every institution, with members at Bayonne and Christ winning improvements in exisiting plans. And at Meadowlands, workers will establish a committee to review the provision of health benefits to retirees. 

Wages:
Minimum wage increases will average more than 10% over the two years through a combination of across-the-board cost of living and longevity increases. The increases come on top of current wage rates at the five institutions that are already among the highest in the state. And UMDNJ Local 5094 (professional staff) were able to re-establish longevity step wage increases that had been “frozen” for years.

Contract Lengths and the Future:
Contracts at institutions that settled by June 2nd - Englewood, Pascack Valley, Bayonne, Palisades General and Christ - will all expire on May 31st 2006: enabling HPAE members at those facilities to join with the members at Cooper and Meadowlands in one statewide, collective effort to win improvements in each of the respective contract negotiations.

“These contract negotiations were just one part of the larger process of setting higher standards for healthcare workers on a regional and statewide basis,” stated HPAE President Ann Twomey. “Now, we need to focus our efforts on making sure that the right people are elected in November, while working to win passage of the public disclosure and staffing legislation in Trenton.”