OPEIU Local 22 began it's 2023 contract negotiations with the Hospital. During this first meeting, we heard from Chad Aduddell, the Hospital CEO, who provided an update on the Hospital, it's finances, and outlook as well as discussed general trends in healthcare at the moment. We submitted our first five proposals to the hospital which are outlined below. We will be meeting with the Hospital again next week after they have had time to consider our proposals, and we will have more proposals to present at that time. If you have not already taken our 2023 Bargaining survey, you can do so here.

Proposal 1: Clean Work Environment This proposal establishes an expectation for the hospital to provide basic supplies such as toilet paper, hand sanitizer, soap, and paper towels on each unit. We heard from many of you that due to the EVS staffing shortages, it has been hard to obtain these supplies or they go unfilled.

Proposal 2: Floating This proposal establishes guidelines for when critical staffing can be used to float nurses outside of their pod, as well as how critical staffing can be declared. It also establishes extra payment for any nurses that are floated outside of their pod involuntarily. Lastly, this proposal sets the expectation that any nurse scheduled for the charge role (PCC or relief charge) shall not be forced to float.

Proposal 3: Grievance Policy This proposal simply clears up language in the current grievance policy in Article 6 of our CBA to make it consistent throughout.

Proposal 4: Witness Pay This policy establishes the expectation that the hospital will compensate nurses if they are called to give testimony in a legal proceeding in which the Hospital is involved. It also includes reimbursement for mileage reimbursement if travel is required.

Proposal 5: Negotiations Pay

This proposal establishes that the Nurses that participate in contract negotiations shall be compensated by the hospital if bargaining occurs during their scheduled work shift. Currently, the negotiations team must use their PTO, take the day unpaid, or be reimbursed by the union for wages. This creates an issue of inequality, as the Hospital and their representatives are being paid for negotiations.

We are currently finalizing proposals on several areas, but we are open for feedback on anything you would like to see in our contract. We have heard about pay, overpayments/underpayments, staffing, clinical ladder, and other issues from many of you. Please share your feedback through our bargaining survey at the link above.

We look forward to sharing updates with you in the future as we continue bargaining.