Contract Campaign Committee

We organized the contract campaign representatives into the following groups to meet and exchange ideas on contract proposals: Procedure-driven units, MCH, Critical Care, Cardiovascular, MEETH and Med/Surg. Upon completion of these meetings, you will receive a short survey on bargaining priorities. Along with your bargaining survey, you will receive a manager evaluation form. Please return both no later than August 31st. The NYPNU leadership will present the initial contract proposals to the membership on September 6th and 7th, and contract negotiations will commence in early September.

The contract campaign representatives have provided extremely useful feedback to the negotiating committee. The meetings have also provided an opportunity for rank-and-file members from different units to problem solve collectively. Contract campaign committee members will continue to perform a vital role as liaisons between the negotiating team and their home units. Please go to your unit’s representative(s) for updates on the bargaining process and be sure to thank them for their great work.

Nurse/Patient Ratio Compliance

The Hospital is continuing to aggressively recruit RN staff. There were 18 new hires at NYPNU’s orientation for new members on August 10th. As the new hires are being oriented, the Hospital will continue to rely more heavily on per diem, traveler and agency nurses. While most units have seen an increase in supplemental staff, the Union is still

receiving documentation of sporadic ratio violations. Please be aware that management will probably never stop asking you take patients above your ratio. Asking does not, by itself, constitute a contract violation. It becomes a contract violation only if you refuse and management tries to compel you to do it. In the interests of your patients, your license, your sanity and your coworkers, please take a united stand against accepting unsafe assignments. Meanwhile, we will be fighting at the bargaining table to improve the ratios on med/surg and intermediate/telemetry floors.

Professional Development Days

In our last contract, we negotiated that the Hospital would set aside approximately $120,000 per year to be devoted to our members’ professional development. If members do not access those funds over the course of the year, the money reverts back to the Hospital. We have discovered that the fund is being drastically underutilized. Please avail yourself of this benefit. It is described in greater detail in Article XXII §4 of the contract. The policy that the Staff/ Management committee developed to implement this language is available on our website at <http://www.nypnu.org/rights_
dev.html>.

Sleeping During Breaks

A Nurse Manager arrived early and discovered a night nurse sleeping in a patient bed. (The bed and the room were unoccupied at the time.) The nurse was immediately suspended. Fortunately, the nurse was on his break, but management still considers the use of a patient bed to be a violation of hospital policy. The Union was able to successfully intervene on this nurse’s behalf, and we will always do everything in our power to defend our members. However, we cannot defend sleeping in patient care areas. If you want to sleep during your break, please do so in an area that is off limits to the public.