Local 5105 Session 3 Bargaining Update

In our bargaining session with Virtua yesterday, the Hospital continued to push proposals that force us to do more with less. They are holding strong on their proposed changes to the Clinical grouping language which we know is motivated by corporate greed and the staffing crisis. The hospital has said they are “very, very, very” unlikely to agree to any of our safe staffing/ratio proposals that we all know we NEED to not only safely care for our patients but recruit and retain nurses.

On May 1st, we will bring together nurses from the surgical service clinical groupings (PACU, SPA, OR and MASC) to have an informational breakout session which will allow our members to speak out on how these proposed changes will impact safety, staffing and the care of our surgical patients. If you are interested in attending and having your voice heard, please look for future information related to the place and time of this surgical services clinical grouping breakout session.

On May 3rd will we bring together our ICU/2N RNs as well as our MBU/LD RNs in 2 similar breakout sessions to speak to the employer’s’ proposed changes to their clinical grouping language. The negotiations committee knows that their proposed changes to the clinical grouping language are not well thought out and who better to tell them then YOU! Please look for future information regarding place and time of these breakout session and plan to attend!

We will then meet with management for Bargaining on May 3rd where we will present our economic proposals and continue to push our priorities on staffing, nurse recruitment/retention and health and safety. This will be an IN-PERSON bargaining session at the hospital not virtual as previously advertised.

In the meantime, we are strongly encouraging EVERYONE to sign up for our safe staffing rally on May 11th in Trenton. This is a critical opportunity to build on the momentum from the recent strike in New York and calls from nurses all around the county for mandated staffing ratios. We need a huge turnout to convince our legislators that SAFE STAFFING SAVES LIVES!

Please register here to attend the May 11th rally and make your voice heard! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/may-11th-rally-for-safe-staffing-registration-533967339687

(Bus available to Rally in Trenton and will be leaving from the Lumberton Plaza parking lot)

In solidarity,

Your Local 5105 Bargaining Committee