Benedictine nurses approve first contract!

KINGSTON, Dec. 23, 2011 – Registered nurses at Benedictine Hospital approved their first-ever union contract last night – a contract that will help provide for stable and fair working conditions and protect nurses’ workplace rights.
The RNs first elected the New York State Nurses Association their collective bargaining representative in November 2008. Contract negotiations started on Dec. 22 of that year. And now, three years to the day, they have a contract.

“Initial agreements can be difficult to negotiate, and this one was especially so, because of the determined effort by the Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley to deny the nurses the right to a fair contract,” said Thomas Darby, Nurses Association negotiator. “Management used one stall tactic after another and even tried to decertify the union last year. Still, the nurses won out!”

Highlights of the agreement:

Stability and benefit protection – With a contract, the benefits cannot be taken away, changed, or diminished at the employer’s whim. So, for instance, provisions such as paid time off, pension, health benefits, salary, and differentials are protected.
Job security – To protect against unjust discharge, this agreement has a grievance procedure that provides for final binding arbitration. This means if a supervisor were to try to terminate a nurse, they would have access to representation through a grievance procedure and ultimately legal representation in front of an arbitrator. To protect RNs from unfair layoff, the contract makes use of a fair system that makes use of seniority and bumping rights.
Work rule equity – The contract includes rules regarding floating, posting of vacancies, posting of work schedules, time clocks, low census, and shift rotation that will be known and implemented fairly for all RNs. If they are not, a nurse can file a grievance to force the employer to follow the contract.
Staffing – One the primary goals of the Nurses Association is to improve patient care. In this contract, the employer agrees to make every effort necessary to insure an adequate RN-to-patient ratio so that the RNs can provide safe, quality patient care. No registered nurse can be disciplined for protesting an assignment they believe in their professional judgment to be unsafe.
Wage reopener – There is not a specific future wage increase in this agreement. But it does include the right for the bargaining unit to demand a wage reopener, with the right to strike as an option, if need be, to obtain a fair wage increase. The reopener is available as soon as June 2012.
Parity – This term describes the monetary increases to rates covering base plus experience, education, certification, and shift differentials, charge pay, and call pay. What this will mean monetarily to each individual nurse will depend on the nurse’s education, certifications, and when and they work. Each nurse will receive one month of pay that credits the parity rates as if they were in effect.

Research has shown that the level of patient care is better at hospitals in which the RNs are represented for collective bargaining and Nurses Association members at Benedictine are looking forward to working toward achieving the highest levels of care. They also anticipate that this agreement will also bring a quick conclusion to contract negotiations for their colleagues at Nistel, Inc. Talks there have been underway since June 15, 2009.

“Through their persistence Benedictine nurses have achieved an initial contract that they can all be proud of,” Darby said. “This contract provides nurses with a means working to improve patient care and guarantee economic fairness and equity. It will lay the foundation for many improvements in years to come.”

The New York State Nurses Association is the voice for nursing in the Empire State. With more than 37,000 members, it is New York’s largest professional association and union for registered nurses. The association represents registered nurses, and some all-professional bargaining units, in New York and New Jersey. It supports nurses and nursing practice through education, research, legislative advocacy, and collective bargaining.

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