The contract was ratified with a 97% Yes vote (1,275 SHARE members voted Yes, and 33 SHARE members voted No.) Thank you to everyone who voted, either Yes or No. It is a sign of a healthy union that so many people came to voice their opinion. The contract goes into effect next week.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
RATIFICATION VOTE SCHEDULE September 24 & 25
Monday, September 24
ACC 1:00pm - 6:00pm 4th floor, ACC4-001
Barre 11:30am - 1:30pm Break Room
Biotech III 11:45am - 2:00pm Conference Room (202)
ACC 1:00pm - 6:00pm 4th floor, ACC4-001
Barre 11:30am - 1:30pm Break Room
Biotech III 11:45am - 2:00pm Conference Room (202)
CBO
8:00am - 11:00am
1st Floor File
Room
Farmhouse 12:30pm - 1:30pm Basement Conference Room
Farmhouse 12:30pm - 1:30pm Basement Conference Room
Hahnemann
12:00pm - 1:30pm
2nd Floor Conference Room
Home Health 9:30am - 10:00am Break Room
Lincoln St Emp Health 10:00am - 10:30am Break Room
Home Health 9:30am - 10:00am Break Room
Lincoln St Emp Health 10:00am - 10:30am Break Room
Milford
11:00am
Morgan
12:00pm -
1:30pm 3rd Floor Conf Room
PTC 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Shrews Family Med 8:45am - 9:00am Break Room
Shrews Radiology 8:00am - 8:30am Break Room
Sleep Center 2:30pm – 3:00pm Break Room
So County Pediatrics 2:00pm - 2:30pm lobby
Tri-River 12:00pm - 1:00pm Community Room
WBC 12:00pm - 2:30pm Spruce Conference Room
W. Boylston Fam Med 2:00pm - 3:00pm Conference Room
328 Shrewsbury 3:00pm - 3:30pm
67 Belmont 11:30am - 11:45am Conference Room
PTC 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Shrews Family Med 8:45am - 9:00am Break Room
Shrews Radiology 8:00am - 8:30am Break Room
Sleep Center 2:30pm – 3:00pm Break Room
So County Pediatrics 2:00pm - 2:30pm lobby
Tri-River 12:00pm - 1:00pm Community Room
WBC 12:00pm - 2:30pm Spruce Conference Room
W. Boylston Fam Med 2:00pm - 3:00pm Conference Room
328 Shrewsbury 3:00pm - 3:30pm
67 Belmont 11:30am - 11:45am Conference Room
Tuesday, September 25
University
6:00am - 4:00pm
Cafeteria (back right
corner)
Memorial 6:00am – 8:00am Memorial 1 Conf Room Memorial 8:15am – 10:30am Memorial Cafeteria
Memorial 6:00am – 8:00am Memorial 1 Conf Room Memorial 8:15am – 10:30am Memorial Cafeteria
Memorial 11:00am – 4:00pm Memorial Cafeteria
Voting is limited to SHARE members. Please call the SHARE office if you need to sign a membership card.
You can vote at any location. However, absentee ballots are not allowed.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Contract Agreement!
The SHARE Contract Negotiating Team is very pleased to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement! The contract goes into effect if SHARE members vote to approve it on September 24th-25th.
All SHARE members will be mailed to their home address a Summary of the tentative agreement, a list of Voting times and locations, a list of Information Meeting times and locations, and a Raise Calculator.
Also you can find, through this highlighted link, Full details of the Agreement.
Our goal in these negotiations has been to preserve benefits, get a decent raise, and create as much stability for SHARE members as possible. If ratified, our new contract:
• Runs for four years, from October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2016
• Preserves the 85%-15% split on Health Insurance premiums & keeps co-pays the same
• Provides Raises that average 3% for SHARE members each year (see Raise Calculator)
• Reduces the Pension benefit (No pension earnings will be lost; however, starting in 2017, the calculation will be modified so that it continues to increase, but not as fast)
• Doubles UMass Memorial’s match for member contributions to the 401(k) starting in 2017
• Raises the Charge Pay differential from $0.60/hr to $2.50/hr
• Preserves the Earned Time accrual rate for current SHARE members, but reduces the rate for future members by 3 days/year
• Strengthens our Work Security language with stipulations about any potential outsourcing and department closures or sales in the future
The contract proposal also provides a timeline and guidelines for a joint Labor-Management Committee. During negotiations, SHARE and UMass Memorial identified a list of unresolved issues we have agreed to continue to discuss and try to reach agreement about. For example, UMass Memorial has stated its interest in raising parking rates gradually until SHARE member rates meet the newly-proposed higher rates. Enclosed you can find more details about the parking proposal, and a full list of the issues proposed by UMass Memorial and SHARE.
The negotiating team believes that with this agreement, we participate responsibly toward the success of our hospital, and, at the same time, provide what we and our families need, in order to deal with what seem to be ever-increasing economic pressures. We ask you to vote in favor of this agreement on September 24th-25th.
All SHARE members will be mailed to their home address a Summary of the tentative agreement, a list of Voting times and locations, a list of Information Meeting times and locations, and a Raise Calculator.
Also you can find, through this highlighted link, Full details of the Agreement.
Our goal in these negotiations has been to preserve benefits, get a decent raise, and create as much stability for SHARE members as possible. If ratified, our new contract:
• Runs for four years, from October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2016
• Preserves the 85%-15% split on Health Insurance premiums & keeps co-pays the same
• Provides Raises that average 3% for SHARE members each year (see Raise Calculator)
• Reduces the Pension benefit (No pension earnings will be lost; however, starting in 2017, the calculation will be modified so that it continues to increase, but not as fast)
• Doubles UMass Memorial’s match for member contributions to the 401(k) starting in 2017
• Raises the Charge Pay differential from $0.60/hr to $2.50/hr
• Preserves the Earned Time accrual rate for current SHARE members, but reduces the rate for future members by 3 days/year
• Strengthens our Work Security language with stipulations about any potential outsourcing and department closures or sales in the future
The contract proposal also provides a timeline and guidelines for a joint Labor-Management Committee. During negotiations, SHARE and UMass Memorial identified a list of unresolved issues we have agreed to continue to discuss and try to reach agreement about. For example, UMass Memorial has stated its interest in raising parking rates gradually until SHARE member rates meet the newly-proposed higher rates. Enclosed you can find more details about the parking proposal, and a full list of the issues proposed by UMass Memorial and SHARE.
The negotiating team believes that with this agreement, we participate responsibly toward the success of our hospital, and, at the same time, provide what we and our families need, in order to deal with what seem to be ever-increasing economic pressures. We ask you to vote in favor of this agreement on September 24th-25th.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Signature Poster in Support of Our Contract
Our union's negotiating team is currently at work on the next SHARE contract. We are asking you to join thousands of other SHARE members here at UMass Memorial in adding your signature to a poster that will contain the language at the bottom of this post.
You may have seen a similar poster in the hospital from a few years ago, one that looks like this------>
All those tiny signatures represent over 2,000 SHARE members standing together for a strong contract. It's a powerful message.
When we have enough signatures this time, we will print copies of the poster for members to hang in their workplaces as a way of demonstrating their strong support for the negotiating team and their goals.
UMass Memorial Works Because We Do
We Believe in our Future. We are committed to the success of our hospitals and to providing high quality, caring, and affordable healthcare to our families, our friends and our communities in Central Massachusetts. We know that our hospital will have to change to continue to provide excellent care and stay financially healthy.
We Believe in Participation. We are committed to having a voice in charting a future course for our hospitals. Our knowledge and experience helps improve patient care when we are involved in decision-making.
We Believe in Economic Fairness. UMass Memorial needs to cut costs, not shift costs onto employees who can’t afford it. No group should be asked to pay more than they can. Our paid time off, health insurance, pensions and work security help people move into and stay in the middle class. When our lives are stable, we can take better care of our patients.
We Will Stick Together, through our union, to move forward. Our patients, our families, and our community are depending on us.
SHARE
Pro-Patient • Pro-Union
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
What's Happening in Contract Negotiations? August Information Meetings
Contract negotiations may move extremely quickly this time -- come find out why, and put in your two cents about health insurance, earned time, raises, the pension, and job security. The SHARE Negotiating Team wants you to know what's going on, and we want your thoughts. (For more info, see post below.) Please come to a SHARE Information meeting.
Morgan 8/13 11:30-1:30 3rd Floor Conference Room
University 8/14 11:30-1:30 Benedict EA3-101
CBO 8/15 12:00-2:00 4th Floor Conference Room
Memorial 8/17 11:30-1:30 Memorial 1 Conference Room
Farmhouse 8/21 12:00-1:00 Basement Conference Room
Biotech III 8/21 11-12:30 Seminar Room
WBC 8/22 12:00-2:00 Willow Conference Room 2nd Flr
Tri-River 8/27 11:30-1:30 Community Room
Hahnemann 8/28 12:00-1:30 2nd Floor Conference Room
ACC 8/28 11:30-1:30 4th Floor Conf Room, 4-0001
We will add more locations to this list as we are able to schedule them. In September, we will have another complete round of Information Meetings. Please contact the SHARE office if you would like a meeting in your location, and keep your eye on the blog for additional information.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Contract Negotiations and More
We're back in Contract Negotiations. The extension we agreed upon earlier this year runs through September 30th. That was awfully quick, wasn't it?
Obviously, there's a lot to say about all of this, and about all of the other goings-on. We're working on a more thorough and thoughtful information letter. And we are planning a series of Information Meetings. In addition to talking about the Contract, we will provide updates about the pension committee, the most recent past layoffs, the sale of the Home Health and Hospice facility and the Labs, the SHARE Signature Poster project, and more.
In the interest of making sure that everyone has some basic information, and knows how to get more, here's the first in a series of blog posts about Contract Negotiations.
SHARE has had two Negotiation Sessions with UMass Memorial management so far. The SHARE negotiation team is made up of the SHARE Officers and Executive Board and the SHARE Organizing Staff. We have been meeting with the hospital's management team, headed by Joe Fournier in Labor Relations, and Walter Hunter, an outside attorney.
In the first negotiating session, both teams introduced themselves. There are some new faces on the management team, and we are still getting to know each other. We got quickly down-to-business, as the management team made clear that they have a strong interest in settling a new contract quickly. Once we come to an agreement on the pension, even though nothing would change for us until 2017, the hospital can start counting savings on their balance sheet. If we settle before the end of this fiscal year, they can count savings in this fiscal year. So the timing matters a lot to them.
The SHARE team made clear that it has a number of important issues that need to be addressed, and spent time outlining these issues. The management team described the hospital's need to cut costs, the SHARE team emphasized that the vast majority of our members tell us that their biggest concerns include wages, benefits--especially health insurance, earned time, and the pension--and job security.
The second negotiation session opened with a presentation from UMMMC's Chief Financial Officer, Therese Day. She described the biggest negative economic impacts on the hospital (declining reimbursement rates, tiering by health insurance providers, declining interest rates, and the rising costs of providing healthcare). The management team asserted that healthcare is changing, and that the kind of change is different than anything we've seen before, in that the change involves a number of external forces over which the hospital has little or no control.
To finish negotiating with the hospital by the end of August, we have to figure out what to do with all the issues. Some of the issues are more time-sensitive, and others will require more time and energy than will be available before the contract deadline. In an effort to deal with this problem, we have begun to negotiate the idea of an ongoing Labor-Management Committee that could oversee jointly-made solutions. Knowing that we have a more reliable structure for dealing with ongoing issues, the negotiating team will be able to focus its attention on the topics that must necessarily be addressed at the negotiating table, including the pension, benefits, raises, and job security.
If the SHARE negotiating team can reach a tentative agreement with the hospital negotiating team by the end of August, then we will get the proposal to SHARE members to read, have another round of information meetings, and hold a vote before the end of September. That is a tight schedule, but it is possible. And both sides are highly motivated.
We'll keep posting updates on the blog, in newsletters, and at the upcoming Information Meetings. More to come . . .
Obviously, there's a lot to say about all of this, and about all of the other goings-on. We're working on a more thorough and thoughtful information letter. And we are planning a series of Information Meetings. In addition to talking about the Contract, we will provide updates about the pension committee, the most recent past layoffs, the sale of the Home Health and Hospice facility and the Labs, the SHARE Signature Poster project, and more.
In the interest of making sure that everyone has some basic information, and knows how to get more, here's the first in a series of blog posts about Contract Negotiations.
SHARE has had two Negotiation Sessions with UMass Memorial management so far. The SHARE negotiation team is made up of the SHARE Officers and Executive Board and the SHARE Organizing Staff. We have been meeting with the hospital's management team, headed by Joe Fournier in Labor Relations, and Walter Hunter, an outside attorney.
In the first negotiating session, both teams introduced themselves. There are some new faces on the management team, and we are still getting to know each other. We got quickly down-to-business, as the management team made clear that they have a strong interest in settling a new contract quickly. Once we come to an agreement on the pension, even though nothing would change for us until 2017, the hospital can start counting savings on their balance sheet. If we settle before the end of this fiscal year, they can count savings in this fiscal year. So the timing matters a lot to them.
The SHARE team made clear that it has a number of important issues that need to be addressed, and spent time outlining these issues. The management team described the hospital's need to cut costs, the SHARE team emphasized that the vast majority of our members tell us that their biggest concerns include wages, benefits--especially health insurance, earned time, and the pension--and job security.
The second negotiation session opened with a presentation from UMMMC's Chief Financial Officer, Therese Day. She described the biggest negative economic impacts on the hospital (declining reimbursement rates, tiering by health insurance providers, declining interest rates, and the rising costs of providing healthcare). The management team asserted that healthcare is changing, and that the kind of change is different than anything we've seen before, in that the change involves a number of external forces over which the hospital has little or no control.
To finish negotiating with the hospital by the end of August, we have to figure out what to do with all the issues. Some of the issues are more time-sensitive, and others will require more time and energy than will be available before the contract deadline. In an effort to deal with this problem, we have begun to negotiate the idea of an ongoing Labor-Management Committee that could oversee jointly-made solutions. Knowing that we have a more reliable structure for dealing with ongoing issues, the negotiating team will be able to focus its attention on the topics that must necessarily be addressed at the negotiating table, including the pension, benefits, raises, and job security.
If the SHARE negotiating team can reach a tentative agreement with the hospital negotiating team by the end of August, then we will get the proposal to SHARE members to read, have another round of information meetings, and hold a vote before the end of September. That is a tight schedule, but it is possible. And both sides are highly motivated.
We'll keep posting updates on the blog, in newsletters, and at the upcoming Information Meetings. More to come . . .
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
SHARE Reps & Executive Board
Congratulations to the new SHARE Reps and Executive Board members, and to those who will be continuing this year from previous years. And to those SHARE Reps who are stepping down this year, thank you for your hard work!
Here are the new and returning SHARE leaders, by location:
Barre
Krista King, Barre Health Center
Biotech 3
Kay Ferraro, Cytopathology
CBO
Sandy Alafberg, SHARE Treasurer
Sheldon Brown, Executive Board, Affiliates/Outreach
Kyle Charbonneau, Billing – Affiliates/Outreach
Carol Fricka, Billing Support Services
Pat Strait, Billing Medicare
Hahnemann
Eleanor Beshai, Plastic Surgery
Sharon Wagner, Family Docs - Rudnick
Memorial
Alana Wesson, SHARE Co-President
Bill Brennan, Executive Board, Biomed Engineering
Joan Powlics, Executive Board, ED
Nancy Bickford, West 3
Andrea Caraglior, Respiratory Therapy
Jay Hagan, CAT Scan
Ray Gietler, Radiation Oncology
Ana Luiz, Women’s Services OBGyn
Michelle Norum, South 5
Joann Shoup, Maternity - Delivery
Angel Small, Multiple Sclerosis Clinc
Sandy Tebo, South 2
PTC
Matt Stockwell, 3PTC Psych Nursing
Tri River
Mary Misiaszek, Tri River Clinic Admin
University
Rita Caputo, SHARE Co-President
Rob Beatty, SHARE Secretary
Deb Clark, Executive Board, Univ. Admissions Unit
Kathy Girouard, Executive Board, Univ. Cardiac Cath
Sharon Pichierri, Executive Board, Univ. Ortho Clinic
Zelpher Bayode, Nursing One to One
Kathy Benitez, Lakeside 2
Sue Bouthot, Orthopedic Billing
Diane Brown, CAT Scan
LeDean Buzzell, Pediatrics Administration
Margaret Carolan, Neurodiagnostic Center
Tom Collins, Respiratory Therapy
Kona Enders, 3 West
Diane Jewell, 4th Floor
Lynn LaFrance, CVC
Rich Leufstedt, Radiology Diagnostic
Dianne Ludovico, Endoscopy Suite
Sue Maddalena, Cardiac Cath
Denise Page, ED
Harrison Saydee Sr., Nursing One to One
Matilda Williams, 6 East
WBC
Marie Guertin, HIM Chart Completion
Here are the new and returning SHARE leaders, by location:
Barre
Krista King, Barre Health Center
Biotech 3
Kay Ferraro, Cytopathology
CBO
Sandy Alafberg, SHARE Treasurer
Sheldon Brown, Executive Board, Affiliates/Outreach
Kyle Charbonneau, Billing – Affiliates/Outreach
Carol Fricka, Billing Support Services
Pat Strait, Billing Medicare
Hahnemann
Eleanor Beshai, Plastic Surgery
Sharon Wagner, Family Docs - Rudnick
Memorial
Alana Wesson, SHARE Co-President
Bill Brennan, Executive Board, Biomed Engineering
Joan Powlics, Executive Board, ED
Nancy Bickford, West 3
Andrea Caraglior, Respiratory Therapy
Jay Hagan, CAT Scan
Ray Gietler, Radiation Oncology
Ana Luiz, Women’s Services OBGyn
Michelle Norum, South 5
Joann Shoup, Maternity - Delivery
Angel Small, Multiple Sclerosis Clinc
Sandy Tebo, South 2
PTC
Matt Stockwell, 3PTC Psych Nursing
Tri River
Mary Misiaszek, Tri River Clinic Admin
University
Rita Caputo, SHARE Co-President
Rob Beatty, SHARE Secretary
Deb Clark, Executive Board, Univ. Admissions Unit
Kathy Girouard, Executive Board, Univ. Cardiac Cath
Sharon Pichierri, Executive Board, Univ. Ortho Clinic
Zelpher Bayode, Nursing One to One
Kathy Benitez, Lakeside 2
Sue Bouthot, Orthopedic Billing
Diane Brown, CAT Scan
LeDean Buzzell, Pediatrics Administration
Margaret Carolan, Neurodiagnostic Center
Tom Collins, Respiratory Therapy
Kona Enders, 3 West
Diane Jewell, 4th Floor
Lynn LaFrance, CVC
Rich Leufstedt, Radiology Diagnostic
Dianne Ludovico, Endoscopy Suite
Sue Maddalena, Cardiac Cath
Denise Page, ED
Harrison Saydee Sr., Nursing One to One
Matilda Williams, 6 East
WBC
Marie Guertin, HIM Chart Completion
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