HPAE Local 5105 at Virtua-Health (MHBC/CNS & CFW)

Local 5105 Reps' Holiday Celebration
January 4, 2012

Last month, Local 5105 Reps got together for a holiday party to celebrate the end of the year and a successful contract fight. The Reps enjoyed the good food, great conversation, and a suprise raffle!

Below are photos from the party:

The Local 5105 Negotiations Committee reached a tentative settlement with management on May 31st and the membership voted overwhelmingly to ratify the settlement at membership meetings held yesterday.
Read the CNS settlement summary
Read the Settlement for Nurses at Virtua Memorial Hospital and CFW


Membership Votes to Authorize Strike
May 19, 2011

At a packed membership meeting last night, Local 5105 members voted to authorize the Negotiations Committee to call a strike if the remaining contract issues cannot be resolved. The Committee is making every effort to achieve a fair and decent contract.


Local Leafletters Show Support for Negotiations Committee
May 13, 2011

While the Negotiations Committee met with management on May 10, members turned out to leaflet members as a show of support for the Committee. Virtua has shown little movement on important issues, including safe staffing, cancellation, and bargaining rights over benefits. On May 18 Local 5105 members will vote whether to authorize concerted activity, up to a strike if necessary.

Virtua continues to propose contract changes that will have a negative impact on staffing and quality care, while demanding unilateral control over benefits. Come to an important membership meeting May 18 to discuss the status of negotiations and to take a vote to authorize concerted activity.
Read More


A Hospital That Looks Like a Luxury Hotel, While There's No Money for Needed Staff
May 3, 2011

On May 1, over 80 HPAE members, friends, and family came out with their red shirts to tour the new Virtua Voorhees Hospital. Virtua rented jugglers and dancers, and provided free food and drinks to show off the extravagant new hospital with three rooftop gardens. Given the money they spent on the hospita,, it does not appear that Virtua is too concerned with their finances, so why do we continue to face problems getting safe staffing for quality patient care? The hotel-like accommodations looks great, but is Virtua investing in the nurse at your bedside?

Local 5105 Vice President, Lorraine Thone, expressed the feelings of many Virtua nurses about the new hospital in Voorhees, New Jersey:

I think people are really frustrated and visibly upset at how we at Virtua Memorial Hospital are being told to be flexible & to expect less because of tough economic times, yet they have not only overspent on the hospital with the bells & whistles but also on the open house. They are looking to impress, but what about the patients and the care they will be getting once they open? It is a shame that during these “economic times”, we are begging for staffing daily or have yet to see Virtua’s wage proposal in negotiations. At Memorial, the nurses are humbled with limited resources yet creative enough to provide exceptional patient care. This is our “flexibility”. We saw the Bling, but we want hands.

The room was packed at the Local 5105 General Membership meeting on April 27. The Negotiating Team gave updates and members discussed how to get involved and stand together to fight against Virtua's contract proposals, which attack on our working conditions and standards.

Come to the April 27th Membership Meeting
April 13, 2011
On April 11th, we received Virtua's first set of proposals and they were very disappointing. Virtua proposed drastic contract changes, including taking away our right to bargain over healthcare, dental and life insurance, gutting our staffing language, and weakening protections against pulling. Virtua is also demanding the right to cancel us in 4 hour blocks, cancel an RN after a shift starts., and get rid of the firs day of pay.

Come to the membership meeting on April 27 to stay informed and take action!
Read More


Bargaining Update
April 11, 2011
Contract negotiations began on March 28, 2011. We gave Virtua our proposals; at the April 11th session, they gave us their first set of proposals, which included a weakening of our floating language and the unilateral right to determine healthcare benefits.
Read More


Virtua Members Show Support for Negotiations Committee
March 24, 2011
Over sixty five members of Local 5105 came out in the morning and evening at Virtua Memorial Hospital to leaflet their co-workers and show support for a fair contract. Negotiations for a new contract begin March 28, 2011.
Read More

Social Media Policy
August 09, 2010

Please note, we are not in agreement with the new Social Media Policy. We are currently in the process of grieving this policy and will inform the membership when we have more to report. Please let us know if you hear of any discipline issued related to this policy so that we can follow up with a grievance. We will be circulating a petition in the near future related to this policy.

Thanks,
Debbie White
President

HIT Best Practices Checklist: How does Virtua measure up?
The AFT recently adopted a resolution outlining Best Practices that should govern the development, introduction, and implementation of Health Information Technologies (HIT) in our hospitals, including electronic health records (EHR); computerized physician order entry (CPOE); computerized time and attendance systems; automated pharmacy systems, etc. [Click here to view the resolution]. HPAE was part of the Working Group that developed these Best Practices.

We’d like to hear how well your facility or your unit/department measures up to these Best Practices. Please complete and submit this HIT Best Practices Checklist. We’ll share the results of this informal survey with you and policy-makers.

Click here to take the survey and let us know how your facility measures up.

Message from the President
August 09, 2010
As many of you know, for the past 3 years I have been your Grievance Chair. I've spent the time getting to know many of you personally through the grievance process and at rep and general membership meetings. During that time, I became intimately acquainted with the contract and the interpretation of it's many clauses and I continue to work with our new Grievance Chair, Sheryl Mount, as she now assumes this role.

I've been a nurse for 26 years, and have spent nearly 20 years at Virtua Memorial on the same unit. I've been involved with the union since it's inception and I remember the conditions that in the mid 1990's that caused us to organize. I remember that prior to organizing we were at the mercy of administration. There was no way to fight the random rules imposed by administrators. Some of us took large pay cuts while others were told they had to resign and reapply for their positions, accepting whatever hours were given to us. If a nurse was well-liked by administrators, he/she was given prime hours. If not, well, maybe there were no hours available for that nurse.

With a union, we have recourse. We have a contract and Virtua administrators must abide by it. I've personally seen three RN's who were terminated unfairly, win their jobs back and walk away with large settlements. I've seen nurses, canceled unfairly, be reimbursed for their canceled shifts. I've seen unjust disciplines reduced or removed and nurses denied positions unfairly, awarded those positions. We've also been able to stop the implementation of random work rules. In short we have a voice and Virtua must answer to us.

The key to this is that we all are "the Union." The Union is not just the executive board. It's all of us together. Our power comes through our unity. We know that, in the past, our most effective weapon is that our nurses will respond in crisis. We stick together and work as a team and we've been very effective in doing this especially during contract negotiations. We need one another during this economic crisis where we know the tendency is to cut nursing staff and other nursing dollars to save money.

I am accessible by phone and by email. My email is Debbie461@aol.com and my phone number is 609-828-4105. If you have a question or issue, let me or one of the other executive board members know. We will respond quickly. I look forward to serving the union as president.

Debbie White
President Local 5105

A Message from Lorraine Thone
July 26, 2010

Hello fellow union representatives, I wanted to introduce myself and to inform all of some upcoming events.

1. I am Lorraine Thone- new VP of Memorial. Hired in Aug 2007 on 7 Stokes. My education started with a BA in Criminal Justice/ Political Science. Received my AAS from BCC in May 2007. Worked in many different areas (police, Army National Guard, Home Depot, Industrial Hygienist & lab tech for Environmental Co., Security, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, FMC Dialysis Tech and most impt. being a mom). Nursing wasn't my initial passion-obviously, but has surprisingly been a great reward on many levels. I was honored to be nominated and elected as VP. I wanted to be a part of the executive board team to ensure that nurses are represented fairly with management and able to take care of our patients to the best of their ability. As a team at Memorial we can do that "together". I feel we have an exemplary executive board directed under Deb White.




2. I have compiled a list of reps from each dept. If you are on this list by error or if you decide that you no longer want to represent your dept.- please let me know. I want to thank everyone for continuing to represent or accepting to represent your dept, or floor. In the upcoming contract year it will be essential to get info out to reps and staff.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. I look forward to meeting and seeing everyone in Sept. Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Sincerely, Lorraine Thone VP
Lorraine.thone@verizon.net
856-296-2360 cell

Arbitration Win
In Decemeber of 2008 Andrea Gorsky Cochran was terminated from her position on 6 Stokes. Andrea was accused of signing in on-call when she was on straight time, something she adamantly denied. We filed a grievance for "termination without just cause" and took the process all the way to arbitration. The arbitration, which began last fall, lasted 5 full days.

On April 6th we received the decision by the arbitrator:

"The grievance is sustained. Virtua shall reinstate the Grievant, make her whole for all lost wages and benefits, and remove all mention of the notices of suspension and termination from (her) file."

Though we are still working on the specifics of the settlement, we congratulate both Andrea and our local for the win!

Remember, as a union member, you always have recourse!

NEW LOCAL OFFICERS ELECTED
May 17, 2010

The results are in and the new Executive Board for Local 5105 effective June 1, 2010 is as follows:

President – Debbie White
VP Hospital – Lorraine Thone
VP CNS – Claudia Storicks
Secretary/Treasurer Latoya Meyers
Grievance Chair Hospital – Sheryl Mount
Grievance Chair CNS – Patty Nelson

A huge thank you goes out to our Nomination and Election Committee members – Chair – Judy Giberson, Barbara Damush and Joan Johnson.

Employee Caring Fund – St. Vincent DePaul
May 17, 2010

A call has gone out from Virtua’s executives that donations are needed to the fund, because support has been distributed to many fellow employees. I would encourage members to donate to this fund as this is also where we direct members for help. I would also hope that Virtua’s management would be budgeting dollars for this fund in this time of great economic hardship, in an effort to show themselves as an outstanding employer. Thanks for your support.

Certification Bonus
March 23, 2010

For members that are certified, in order to receive your bonus this year for certification, you need to:

1. download the form to request the certification bonus
2. give the form with proof of your current certification to your supervisor by April 15.

Otherwise, you will not receive a bonus this year for certification. The checks will be distributed during Nurses week by the employer.

In Solidarity,

Claudia Storicks
President
HPAE Local 5105

Message from the President

Since starting this role as President, I have learned a lot more about the Hospital portions of the contract and the issues that plague our hospital members on a day to day basis.

At contract negotiations, management was very clear that they had no desire to include anything more than was already in the contract regarding staffing. Although there is a law about posting the staffing on each unit which follows a very unclear description, they were unwilling to take this any further and make it more concrete. The most recent Labor Management meeting gave me new insight as to why this might be. We have requested a copy of the staffing matrix which many of you reported seems to have changed. We were told at this meeting that it has not changed, but rather they were sticking more closely to the matrix due to budgetary constraints.

Press Ganey results are improved and now we will be asked to sustain these results and continue to improve while taking care of more patients, and attending rounds that take away from time with patients. We’re expected to do all doing all of this perfectly and to please even the highest expectations of our patients and their families. I believe that is exactly what all of us as nurses want to do, be excellent nurses and meet our patients’ needs. The conditions under which we try to achieve this excellence are what are changing.

Management has told us that they have increased the number of observers available so our aids will not be pulled off the floor to do one to one’s. They have pledged to ensure that ancillary personnel in the way of aids, unit secretaries and observers be available so that nurses can do the tasks of running IV’s, assessments, passing meds, teaching etc.

Management also takes great offense to our Unsafe Staffing Reports, but if in your professional opinion, the assignment you have been given is unsafe, you need to fill out the form and include the conditions that make it unsafe such as the number of patients, patient acuity, lack of support personnel and who you contacted to obtain additional help for the unit such as your manager and the reason given why they did not provide you with additional help. This is your record and protection in case something would happen. The fact that a major incident did not occur, is a tribute to your skill. Also, be aware that the form does not have to be filled out and turned in on that day if you are too busy to fill out the form; it can be turned in at a later time, but should be as soon after the occurrence as possible. The issues regarding staffing are pursued at the staffing committee meeting and the unsafe staffing reports are reviewed at that time with management.

We also have an election coming up for the leadership of our Local. While I have learned a lot in this position, it has been a very difficult juggling act to maintain a fulltime 5 day a week position at Virtua and meet the needs of the Local as your President. We have had a pretty stable leadership over the years, but most of the officers have been leading us since the inception of the Local and now find that they are at a place where they would like more time with their families. Therefore, the Nomination and Election Committee are looking for members willing to step up and fill those positions. To have more than one candidate for each position would be awesome. I have always said, if someone wants to do the work I am doing, I can always find other work to do in any volunteer organization I have been involved in. Anyone willing to step up should know that there will be training, mentoring and lots of fun and good times. I have found it rewarding to know that what I do not only helps our members, but our patients as well. Joan Johnson and Sue Raup have expressed that they will not seek reelection, but will continue as reps and active members. We thank them for the many years of service and the phenomenal job they have done with representing our members and negotiating our contracts. We look forward to continuing to work with them in their new roles.

Lastly, I want to let you know I have enjoyed talking to many of you outside the cafeteria on the two occasions I have held hours there to meet you informally. I hope to see more of you in the coming months and look forward to seeing as many of you as can at the General Membership meeting on May 4th.

Claudia Storicks
President Local 5105

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