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Hospital makes final offer to nurses
By TOM KANE
UPDATED June 26, 2003
HARRIS, NY — Catskill Regional Medical Center CEO Arthur Brien
called in the press to tell the nurses and the union that the hospital can’t
find the money to make a better offer than the one they’ve already made.
Brien went to the press on June 19 because he hadn’t heard
from the union, he said.
“I don’t like to negotiate a contract in the press,” he said.
“It’s the best we can offer under the present circumstances,”
Brien said. “There’s no more room to go.” He made reference to the fiscal
constraints on New York State and the hospital due to the September 11 tragedy.
In his view, the proposed contract is a very attractive offer.
“The stance the union is taking is not good for the hospital,
not good for the nurses,” Brien said.
Further, an official of the New York State Nurses’ Association
(NYSNA)—the union that represents about 115 registered nurses at the hospital—charged
that the hospital was adopting union-busting tactics by taking their stance.
“The hospital’s attorney, Robert Ufberg of Scranton, PA, has
a wide reputation for being anti-union,” said Mark Genovese, a spokesman
for NYSNA. “The hospital wants to break the union,” he said.
The new contract offers a 6.5 percent raise in the first year
and five percent the second and third year.
“That’s 16.5 percent in three years. I think that’s pretty
good,” Brien said.
The raises bring the nurses above neighboring hospitals like
Binghamton, but below hospitals in the city, he said.
One of the key points of disagreement with the union, however,
is the health coverage in the package. The union says a typical payment for
family coverage this past year was $80 a month. Under the new contract, nurses
will pay $180 a month the first year, $263 the second year and $261 the third
year.
Brien said that the hospital will pick up 85 percent of the
cost of the coverage and the nurses will pay 15 percent.
“If they choose MVP, another carrier we are offering, they
pay nothing for their insurance,” Brien said. Under MVP, the nurses get the
exact same coverage with the exact same doctors they get under Blue Cross/Blue
Shield, the carrier most of the nurses selected, he said.
“What we object to most is a clause in the proposed contract
that says the hospital has the right to change the insurance carrier without
notifying the nurses,” Genovese said. “What the nurses want is stability
of coverage. What particular carrier they may use is not the issue.”
Another complaint the nurses have against the hospital is
the practice called “floating,” in which a nurse may be asked to temporarily
take up duty in a department for which the nurse is not trained.
“Every hospital these days must adopt the practice of ‘floating’
since there is such a shortage of nurses,” Brien said. “We don’t like to
do it, but we have to.”
Brien said that the hospital has been making a search for
nurses, even going abroad to find them.
“We will be bringing in new nurses very soon,” he said.
UPDATE – June 26, 2003
Nurses strike at
Catskill Regional averted
HARRIS, NY — After nearly 18 straight hours of bargaining,
a tentative agreement was reached at 4:30 a.m. in the contract dispute between
RNs and management at Catskill Regional Medical Center. NYSNA has withdrawn
its strike notice. A ratification vote will be held on Friday, June 27. Details
of the new contract will be released after the vote. The strike had been
scheduled to start at 7:00 a.m. July 1.
For more information, contact Mark Genovese at NYSNA at 518/782-9400,
Ext. 353.
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