Keck/Norris bargaining update #8 (April 13, 2021)
Published Tuesday, April 13, 2021My dearest fellow NUHW members,
We had our seventh bargaining session with USC and their EBG law team today. Several economic proposals were made. USC chose not to respond to them. Adam C. Abrahms of EBG Law said USC did not want to respond to our proposals until agreements were made for the non-economic articles of the contract. USC basically chose not to respond, causing this session to end early.
The Economic Proposals made included:
Article 18 – Education Benefits – proposing an increase to our tuition reimbursement, and that the Hospital will pay for all mandatory in service courses and educational classes.
Article 19 – Leaves of Absence – proposing clean up language to our bereavement benefit to include sons and daughters in law, nieces, nephews, stepbrothers, stepfather and stepmother.
Article 33 – Parking – proposing to maintain free parking, additional clean up language and also that employees coming in from standby status should be able to park in the main hospital structure at no cost.
Article 11 – Hours of Work – Overtime and Scheduling – proposing that employees hired into a M-F position not have to work weekends and that if the Hospital wants to implement weekend scheduling they will meet and confer with the Union on terms and rates of pay.
We did reach an agreement on our contract Article 31 – Uniforms – which explains that the Hospital will provide us our uniforms needed for our work. But not much more.
For meal and rest periods, we agreed as a bargaining committee that we want to memorialize that all covered employees receive at least 15 minute breaks.
We need to push forward in getting our contract settled the way we need it to be. It needs to be a fair contract for which we all are compensated and protected in serving our patients to the best of our ability.
Our next session is Thursday where we plan to propose our new wage scale and other economic items. As we head into the next few weeks there are serious differences between us and the Hospital. We have to prepare to escalate our actions and fight for what we deserve.
“Always remember, your present situation is not your final destination. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.”
In solidarity,
Joyce Noguera
Patient Care Assistant
Bargaining Committee Member
Norris Comprehensive Cancer Hospital of USC