Membership Update, November 2022

Inspira Member Update

• Please make sure you are up to date with all your mandatory education and certifications for your unit. HealthStream is due at the end of the year. It’s a good idea to login and double check that you’re finished with all the modules, as some were added at different times throughout the year. Management may take you off the schedule if you have not finished by the deadline. You are now permitted to do mandatory education remotely. However, you must get preapproval from your manager if time spent working on education at home will take you into overtime for that week.
• We will be holding virtual GEO union orientation sessions for newly hired nurses on December 5, 12 and 19^th at 10 am. Anyone that hasn’t already joined a session is invited. You can access the meeting by clicking on this link: https://aft.zoom.us/j/5835878851
• All nurses are required to fill out a membership form before they are off orientation. They can also be found on our website.
• One of the rights you have as union members is the right to have representation present during an interview with management that you believe could lead to discipline. This is called “Weingarten Rights” (named after a landmark Supreme Court decision). The Court found that union employees have the right to obtain representation before any investigatory meeting. Additionally, the employee also has the right to choose their own representative without management assigning one to them.
  In practice it’s helpful to ask, “could this meeting lead to discipline?” when being called in with management. If the answer is yes, then find the list of union representatives from our website or union bulletin board and see who is available to attend the meeting with you. You must find someone within a reasonable amount of time. All the representatives are trained to know what to do during these meetings. They are there to be a witness and support person for you.
• Unit reps and officers have contract books available if you’d like a copy. Electronic copies of the contract can also be found on the website at hpae.org. Please familiarize yourselves with the contract. It includes the wages, scheduling practices, cancellation, reassignment, tuition, and many other articles that affect your daily working conditions. We as members need to enforce our contract to have a strong voice in our workplace.