Local 5118 Negotiations Update, April 18

Wednesday’s (4/17) session was frustrating and produced nothing. Cooper presented their initial staffing proposal as a package (this means we agree to all of it or it doesn’t exist) which was disappointing. They addressed our staffing committee proposal which includes meeting monthly, having the ability to discuss staffing levels and nurse to patient ratios on all units/departments and to make recommendations to the CNE.

This language is important to have in the contract, however they rejected our comprehensive staffing proposal, including the new and expanded ratios.

The second piece of their package deals with “charge nurse.” They proposed that assignment to the Charge RN role is at the discretion of unit leadership. To us this means there may not be a need to have a Charge Nurse on every shift. Hmm …The proposal includes charge pay — they did not propose an amount of money.

Read the Tentative Agreements.

We rejected their economic proposal and did not amend our economic proposal.

Next Bargaining Session: April 24. See you there!

In Solidarity –

Negotiating Committee