University Hospital Negotiations Update – December 22

On Tuesday, December 16th, our union negotiating committee met with management for the fourth time. Unfortunately, UH still has not seen fit to sit down and get the remainder of their proposals together for us. This is quite disappointing considering the fact that it had been over a month since we last met – more than ample time to put together their package for us. We know they have proposals forthcoming on moving from vacation/holiday/sick time to a PTO back; a new FMLA policy; and new language on discipline to name a few. They also owe us an economic proposal – as ours has been out there for some time now.

We did spend the session reviewing the proposals from both sides that are out there – clarifying issues and trying to find some compromises. We were also able to come to some tentative agreements, mostly on housekeeping issues. However, even though we were able to accomplish some minor things during this session, it is still impossible to begin the real task of bargaining without UH being up front on what they want to see in this contract.

We left the session with a promise from management’s attorney that they would send us bargaining dates for January. Hopefully they will be ready after the holidays to take this process seriously.