Local 5058 Bargaining Update, September 2, 2022

We’re several weeks into negotiating and here’s where we sit…

• We continue to wait for a complete proposal on wages, despite the hospital making over a
  billion dollars in profits during the past two years on the backs of our hard work.
• In the meantime, Hackensack Meridian Health is proposing that a nurse can be forced off
  their regular shift to work nights, days, or alternate weekends as management sees fit.
• They are proposing to loosen floating rules so that members can be sent to a unit based on
  a “nurse’s specific competencies.”
• Management wants to institute “flexing,” which would allow them to send you home on
  your shift.
• HMH would like to punish you for calling out on a weekend by obligating you to work
  another weekend shift in three months. This is in addition to current rules that govern
  absences.
• They’ve proposed denying all PTO on holidays.
• There’s a proposal to deny veteran nurses two-week vacations in the summer so less senior
  nurses can get vacation time. However, they are unwilling to guarantee that less senior nurses will actually get time off, nor are they providing extra resources to units to ensure that this ideal is met.
• Further, they’ve currently rejected our proposals on safety, staffing, and committing to applying wage increases across the entire system versus their current strategy of competing against themselves by giving non-union facilities raises first.

The money is there. The money has always been there. But HMH insists on tying hard earned raises to their vision of an entirely insecure work environment where you can be floated from your unit, from your shift, or even sent home without pay. After two years of holding the line against a pandemic, we need security, not chaos.

Get Involved: Contract Action Team Meeting Wednesday, September 7th at Methodist Church 101 Walnut Street, Neptune, West Grove United
5:30PM-6:30PM and 7:30PM– 8:30PM

We Demand that HMH RESPECT US. PROTECT US. SUPPORT US.

In solidarity,

Local 5058 Bargaining Team