Local 5105 Bargaining Update: May 19th
| Thanks to the unity and power of our membership, we were able to start our bargaining session by telling management that 92% of our total membership voted to give us the authority to call for a strike if necessary. It set a tremendous tone for the day, and gives us powerful leverage as we move forward. Much of the day was spent making progress on smaller issues so that we can focus on major priorities in our final 4 sessions, and we reached tentative agreements on a few items. We are also moving closer on one of our most important issues, Health and Safety. However on our most significant issue of Safe Staffing, management is continuing to tell us that we do not have a major staffing issue! They believe that their proposal to put their current “target staffing guidelines” in a couple of units into the contract is sufficient.
After bargaining, we sent a powerful message to management that this is not the case by packing the room with 90 nurses, elected officials and supporters for a town hall demanding that Virtua put strong nurse to patient rations in our contract. With our mobile billboard outside, we heard nurses passionately tell their stories about the effect that unsafe staffing has on us as nurses, our families and our communities. Now, management needs to hear directly from YOU. This Thursday the 21st, we are asking members to come to bargaining to tell management directly how inadequate staffing and HET is affecting our members and patient safety. Please arrive at 12:30pm as we will be presenting to management at 1:00pm. You can sign up that day as well as the rest of the bargaining sessions at this link: Click here Finally, we want to remind you that we will be holding our Car Caravan at 6:00pm starting in front of the Aldi at Lumberton Plaza. We’ll be circling the hospital along with our giant mobile billboard to send one more clear message to management right before our last scheduled bargaining day. The whole community is invited to come!!! Here’s the link to register As we enter the final stage of the campaign, we have built and demonstrated a tremendous amount of power and unity, and we are seeing the results by the tone management is taking at the table. Now is the time to push even harder as we fight for a contract that we and our patients deserve. The 726 nurses who voted YES can’t be wrong!!! Its time for Virtua to get it done!!! In solidarity, Your Local 5105 Bargaining Committee |