7/29/2019 BNA Daily Labor Report: "NUHW Members Ratify CPMC
Contract, Restoring Concessions Agreed to by SEIU-UHW."
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Health Care Employees
NUHW Members Ratify CPMC Contract,Restoring Concessions Agreed
to by UHW
M
embers of the National Union of HealthcareWorkers-California
Nurses Association March
13 ratified their first contract with Sutters Cali-fornia
Pacific Medical Center for three of its hospitals inSan Francisco,
which restores concessions the formerunion representative agreed to
accept, an NUHW offi-cial told BNA March 21.
In addition, employees represented by United Health-care
Workers-West, an affiliate of the Service Employ-ees International
Union, at a fourth CPMC hospital willreceive the more favorable
terms NUHW negotiatedunder a me too, agreement in UHWs
contract,NUHW Secretary-Treasurer John Borsos told BNA.
Borsos said the new contract, which covers some 750service
workers and licensed vocational nurses, in-cludes an organizing
agreement with a code of con-duct that will be followed if NUHW
attempts to orga-
nize any of some 3,000 nonunion employees at CPMCfacilities,
including the one that is represented by UHW.He said CPMC agreed
not to actively interfere in an
organizing drive, and would not conduct captive audi-ence or
one-on-one meetings. In addition, there wouldnot be a long,
drawn-out process to get to an election,Borsos added.
The UHW-CPMC agreement was approved by 98 per-cent of the
members who voted, Borsos said.
In 2010, UHW, which represented workers at CP-MCs four
hospitals, agreed to contracts that included anumber of
concessions, according to Borsos. He saidthe concessions weakened
seniority and made it moredifficult for per diem workers to convert
to positionswith benefits.
Employees at Three Hospitals Oust UHW for NUHW. In aMay 2011
representation election, workers at CPMCsCalifornia, Davies, and
Pacific campuses voted forNUHW, rejecting continued representation
by UHW,while employees at St. Lukes Hospital voted to retainUHW (93
DLR A-2, 5/13/11).
The UHW contracts with all four CPMC hospitals ex-pired in
December of last year. UHW negotiated a newcontract with St. Lukes,
and NUHW continued to nego-tiate to replace the prior UHW contract
at the threeother CPMC facilities.
Borsos said the new contract reverses the conces-sions that UHW
made in the 2010 contract.
Under terms of the newly ratified NUHW contract,which will run
through Dec. 31, 2013, employees willreceive a 2 percent wage
increase retroactive to Dec. 31,2012, when the prior contract
expired. Borsos said thisis in addition to a 3 percent increase
workers receivedlast March under terms of the UHW contract that
was
still in effect.He added that previously, the average salary in
thebargaining unit was approximately $28 an hour.
CPMC currently plans to build a new hospital thatwill combine
the California and Pacific facilities in 2017or later, Borsos said.
The new contract protects currentemployees, who will receive a job
at the same rate ofpay and hours going forward when the new
hospital isbuilt, he added.
Me Too Provision in St. Lukes Contract. The contractUHW
negotiated with St. Lukes late last year includeda me too provision
stating that if CPMC agreed withanother union at any of the
locations of CPMC to aneconomic term more favorable to the
employees thanthat contained within this agreement, the
employershall immediately notify the union and extend thatmore
favorable economic term to the members of thisbargaining unit.
The contract language listed examples of economicterms that
included: raises; bonuses; terms of paid timeoff and extended sick
leave usage and accrual; healthinsurance premium shares, copays,
and deductibles;differentials; and premium pay.
Borsos said the NUHW contract is more favorable ina number of
areas including health care premiums, timeoff, and reporting pay,
which will benefit the St. Lukesemployees.
Under the NUHW agreement, employees will con-tinue to receive
fully employer-paid health insurance,Borsos said. He said the St.
Lukes contract called foremployees to pay 21 percent in premium
contributions.
The NUHW agreement provides employees who re-port to work but
are sent home through no fault of theirown 8 hours of reporting
pay, Borsos said. UHW hadagreed to cut reporting pay to 4 hours in
the St. Lukescontract, he said.
NUHW also did not agree to any changes in paid timeoff and
extended leave, which UHW did, Borsos said.While both the NUHW and
the UHW contracts loweredthe cap on the number of PTO hours that
could becashed out from 400 to 320, employees would stop ac-
NUMBER 0 A-13 MARCH 21, 2013
COPYRIGHT 2013 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. ISSN
0418-2693
Daily LaborReport
7/29/2019 BNA Daily Labor Report: "NUHW Members Ratify CPMC
Contract, Restoring Concessions Agreed to by SEIU-UHW."
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cruing hours after 320 under the UHW contract, whichNUHW did not
agree to, he said. Also, UHW agreed tocap the accrual of extended
sick leave to 720 hours,while NUHW did not agree to any cap, he
said.
UHW spokesman Sean Wherley told BNA March 21that the me too
language is only triggered if the unionrequests it. He said UHW can
review what anotherunion got and decide whether it likes it or not,
headded.
Wherley said he was not familiar with specific terms
of the St. Lukes contract so could not respond to
NUHWs characterization.
A spokesman for CPMC told BNA March 20 that the
company would not go into a discussion of aspects of
the contracts, which includes the me too clause.
BY MICHELLE AMBER
2
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