May 18 - Bargaining Update + Contract Extension
UNIONS AGREE TO 30-DAY CONTRACT EXTENSION
1199SEIU and CWA have been bargaining for two months now and we have made quite a bit of progress. Despite our best efforts, it is clear that we will not have a new contract negotiated by May 31, 2022 when our current contract expires.Therefore, on May 12, 2022 the Unions and Kaleida Health agreed to extend the contract for a thirty-day period. The language of the extension is as follows:
“This Agreement, dated May 12, 2022 is entered into by Kaleida Health (Employer), the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO (CWA) and 1199SEIU Healthcare Workers East ( SEIU); all signatories to a collective bargaining agreement (Master Agreement) with an expiration date of May 31, 2022.
"The parties listed above are currently engaged in good faith contract negotiations, with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), for a successor agreement to the Master Agreement and hereby mutually agree to continue the terms of the current Master Agreement until 11:59 pm on June 30, 2022.”
As always, we will keep you posted on our progress.
QUARTERLY JOB REVIEW COMMITTEE (MOU #44)
As a regular part of contract negotiations, the union bargaining committee receives information and makes proposals related to salary upgrades. It is a complicated process and what we have learned over the years is that evaluating the need for salary upgrades every three to four years means we fall behind market rates. Reviewing salaries keeps our union jobs competitive with other area hospitals and ensures that we retain dedicated and quality staff to provide care for our patients. Therefore, as part of the 2019 contract negotiations, we agreed to an MOU entitled Quarterly Job Review Committee. The purpose of the committee is to sit down with Kaleida Health four times a year to review data related to staff turnover, market compensation rates, vacancy rates, recruiting metrics, as well as any changes in the job description which might add additional job responsibilities.
In early 2020, we attempted to start the quarterly meetings, but with the pressures of COVID, we were unable to meet until January 21, 2022 and February 8th, 2022. At our meeting, we evaluated multiple titles based on current Market rates, change in certifications and work responsibilities, turnover and vacancy rates, change in practice requirements, etc.
The process outlined in MOU 44 is completely separate from contract negotiations and is a regular standing committee.
Kaleida Administration responded to our proposals on April 1, 2022 with their position on many of the proposed changes. The following titles all met criteria that led to upgrades and adjustments and were agreed upon by both parties:
UPGRADES AND ADJUSTMENTS WILL BE EFFECTIVE MAY 8TH, 2022
ECMO (RN and RT): Increase differential from when running the ECMO pump.
STAT team RN and Coordinator:
- End current differential for STAT when assigned plus an additional increase per case.
- Create new job description and scale RN 4B plus an additional differential for the coordinator.
- Additional team members start in RN2, once fully trained - go to the RN 4B (roughly 6 months)
Certified CT Technologist: Increase one grade to T18
Lead CT Technologist: Increase one grade to T20
Medical Technician: Increase the shift differentials
Pharmacy Technician I: Recruitment & retention bonus, includes partial bonus for first twenty-one months in the title. This recruitment and retention bonus will be reviewed every six months by the unions and Kaleida to determine its effectiveness.
The quarterly job review committee is scheduled to meet quarterly moving forward. The union bargaining committee has however received multiple requests for salary upgrades which will be reviewed by the bargaining committee and will be made part of the union’s economic proposals.