ARHS Nurses Ratify New Contract!
ARHS nurses were able to reach a tentative agreement early in the morning of December 23, when management agreed to the Union’s proposals on healthcare for 2011 and 2012, and when the Hospital agreed to a significant wage increase in 2013 to help with increases in healthcare deductibles.
Nurses voted to ratify the contract later that day.
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Posted By: RJ Hufnagel on 12/28/2010 11:42:00 AM
Negotiations 12/23: Tentative Agreement, Vote TODAY!
After many long negotiating meetings, all of our time, dedication and hard work have paid off with both sides meeting in the middle.
Our negotiating committee has come to a tentative agreement on a contract with the hospital.
We are elated that we were able to come to a mutual agreement that addresses our main issues of staffing guidelines, healthcare benefits, uniforms, paid time off, career ladder, and wages.
You must come out and vote to ratify the contract TODAY -- Thursday, December 23. Meetings are at 8 a.m., 12 p.m., 4 p.m., and 8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express.
See you there!!!! J
Posted By: Jenna Bernard, RN in IC on 12/23/2010 9:04:00 AM
Important Union Meeting Thursday!
Our final scheduled day of negotiations is today, Wednesday, December 22.
Our union contract expires on December 31, 2010.
We will be holding important union membership meetings TOMORROW, on Thursday, December 23.
The meetings will be at 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express.
Posted By: R.J. Hufnagel on 12/22/2010 5:16:00 PM
Negotiations 12/15: Two More Negotiations Sessions Scheduled
Our day began with a discussion reviewing items from yesterday. We went over all the items still open and the PTO time, MOT language, staffing issues and Career Ladder.
The group met with Administration at 10:30 to review new changes to proposals, and tenatively agreed on a few items from yesterday. We reviewed PTO, Career Ladder, and Staffing language. After a discussion and questions asked/answered on both sides, we caucused at 1:00 pm.
We again went through all language and tried our best to narrow things down to the most important items left in order to get an agreement in the next few sessions. There were focused discussions on each item.
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Posted By: Cindy Shuma, RN, PACU on 12/18/2010 11:42:00 AM
Negotiations 12/14: A Glimpse of What Collaboration Looks Like
Today’s negotiating session was very refreshing, and I would like to share why. We spent several hours today working on clarifying such things as PTO, Healthcare, Wellness, and Career Ladder, the big issues still on the table. We continued to work through and think through the remaining contract language issues that remain on the table, while we attempt to reach an agreement in the time that is left. Both sides are working diligently due to the time issue, but at the same time we are not willing to rush to an agreement without spending the necessary time on these major issues necessary to assure that each item is appropriate, and the best it can be for everyone. We have spent countless hours both at the table and researching each item to come to the best position for each proposal, and have sought outside ideas and support from our fellow nurses throughout this entire process.
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Posted By: Cindy Shuma, RN, PACU on 12/18/2010 11:30:00 AM
Membership Meeting Postponed
Rather than having a Membership Meeting on Wednesday December 15, the Negotiating Committee has instead decided to use this day for Negotiations with Management.
We still have lots of proposals to work through and major differences with the Hospital on key issues including:
- Healthcare
- Career Ladder
- PTO
- Wages
- Staffing Ratios
- Mandatory Overtime
The bargaining committee will be getting out information on future dates for negotiations in December and a membership meeting this month prior to the contract expiring.
Posted By: Matt Richards on 12/14/2010 1:16:00 PM
Negotiations 12/8: Firm stance against PTO
Our third meeting of this week with management took place on December 8 at 2 p.m. It started out with our team meeting and going over our proposed tentative agreements and what we already agreed on. At around 6:30 p.m., we then met with management. They presented us with their proposed changes to language and some other issues. We presented them with our proposed changes and went over them.
Our chief negotiator spoke, starting out with the fact that nurses are still taking a firm stand against the new proposed PTO plan.
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Posted By: Jenna Bernard, RN in IC on 12/11/2010 9:51:00 PM
Negotiations 12/7: Follow-up on Tower 10
On Tuesday, the follow-up meeting on Tower 10 took place, with a few staff nurses from Tower 10, our ARHS elected union president, the Chief Nursing Officer, and the med-surg administrative nurse manager.
They discussed specifically what staffing issues were working and which ones were not working on their unit.
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Posted By: Jenna Bernard, RN in IC, Altoona Campus on 12/8/2010 11:44:00 AM
Negotiations 12/6: Discussion of staffing, ratios
On Monday, December 6, we had an early meeting with Tower 12, Tower 11, and Tower 10 nurse managers, the VP of HR, the administrative nurse directors of med-surg, OR, and critical care, the Chief Nursing Officer, and five staff nurses. They had a lengthy discussion regarding nurse/patient ratios, the different target numbers on each unit, where we currently are with these target numbers, and what is working and what is not.
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Posted By: Jenna Bernard, RN in IC, Altoona Campus on 12/8/2010 11:05:00 AM
Negotiations 11/30: Hospital team presents Career Ladder
We started our session with discussions about several items on the agenda, including a vacation proposal, net learning, and several other items.
At about 5:40, we met with the administration’s team. We were immediately aware that on the very day they were to present their Clinical Career Ladder to us, Mr. Rickens was absent from the group.
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Posted By: Cindy Shuma, R.N., PACU on 12/6/2010 9:32:00 AM