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Kaleida Unions Ratify Historic Contract
Health care and support workers represented by three international unions at the Kaleida Health system in western New York have ratified their first system-wide contract. Hailed by both sides as “a landmark labor agreement,” the pact is a first in the United States, according to CWA local leaders and staff involved in the bargaining.
The total value of the five-year agreement is $114.5 million, CWA Representative Dave Palmer said. It covers 7,100 workers, including more than 4,000 members of CWA Local 1168 and 35 members of Local 1122.
“The bargaining team addressed issues and difficulties that were important to 17 separate groups of workers,” said CWA Representative Debora Hayes. “They also melded many of the finest aspects of 17 previously separate contracts into one.”
Balloting, Nov. 30 at the Buffalo Conven-tion Center, followed almost a full year of bargaining between the system and a 55-member bargaining committee elected from Kaleida’s three unions: CWA, the Service Employees and the Operating Engineers.
“The pact is the first health care labor agreement in the nation between several different unions and a health care system,” Palmer said. “That’s why it took so long to complete.”
Local 1168 nurses, technical, clinical, clerical and professional employees are concentrated at three main sites of Buffalo General, Millard Fillmore and DeGraff Hospitals. Local 1122 represents drivers, and warehouse, pharmacy and support staff at Advanced Home Care of Western New York.
Nurses United/Local 1168 President Patricia DeVinney said members ratified the tentative master agreement, reached Oct. 26, by a margin of 5-1, as well as “site agreements” for each bargaining unit, addressing work practices such as scheduling and paid time off at different Kaleida locations.
The master agreement applies to all union employees and specifies articles such as health care staffing, seniority rights, job bidding, transfers, salaries and benefits.
Addresses Quality Care
“The contract is singular in its concern with the issue of quality health care in the community,” DeVinney said. “It provides a stronger platform for nurses and other health care workers to achieve more effective staffing levels.”
Palmer explained that for the first time workers will be able to transfer to jobs throughout the Kaleida system without loss of benefits or seniority.
In negotiating salaries, said Palmer, “We needed to bring workers up to wage and benefit parity, but not at the expense of everyone else.”
“Workers at Kaleida’s lower-paid sites will see significant raises over the life of the contract, but higher-wage earners will also see upgrades,” Local 1168 Executive Vice President John Klein said.
Registered nurses will receive increases of 3 percent in the first year, 2 percent in each of the second and third years, 3 percent in the fourth year and 4 percent in the fifth year, Hayes said.
DeVinney explained that employees doing essentially the same kinds of work in different locations, such as clerical workers at Children’s Hospital as opposed to other hospitals in the system, were being paid significantly less than their counterparts. Their salaries will be the same when this contract expires May 31, 2005.
Workers earning less than the starting rates under the new pay scales will receive immediate increases, bringing them up to those rates, DeVinney said. While no worker in any bargaining unit will receive less than a 2 percent wage increase annually, she said that at the beginning of the contract, some workers will receive “as much as a 25 percent increase.”
Palmer said increases are retroactive to the expiration of individual units’ old contracts, most to the spring of 2000.
Workers in the best health plans, continuing from previous agreements, will keep them with no cost-shifting to the employees, Palmer said, while workers in other plans will see a decrease in premiums.
Palmer said workers will also have the option to sell back unused vacation time or short-term sick leave for cash or credit to 403(d) retirement plans.
The unions will return to the table within 45 days of signing the contract to negotiate improved pension plans for workers who already have them and first-time pension plans for others, he said.
The total value of the five-year agreement is $114.5 million, CWA Representative Dave Palmer said. It covers 7,100 workers, including more than 4,000 members of CWA Local 1168 and 35 members of Local 1122.
“The bargaining team addressed issues and difficulties that were important to 17 separate groups of workers,” said CWA Representative Debora Hayes. “They also melded many of the finest aspects of 17 previously separate contracts into one.”
Balloting, Nov. 30 at the Buffalo Conven-tion Center, followed almost a full year of bargaining between the system and a 55-member bargaining committee elected from Kaleida’s three unions: CWA, the Service Employees and the Operating Engineers.
“The pact is the first health care labor agreement in the nation between several different unions and a health care system,” Palmer said. “That’s why it took so long to complete.”
Local 1168 nurses, technical, clinical, clerical and professional employees are concentrated at three main sites of Buffalo General, Millard Fillmore and DeGraff Hospitals. Local 1122 represents drivers, and warehouse, pharmacy and support staff at Advanced Home Care of Western New York.
Nurses United/Local 1168 President Patricia DeVinney said members ratified the tentative master agreement, reached Oct. 26, by a margin of 5-1, as well as “site agreements” for each bargaining unit, addressing work practices such as scheduling and paid time off at different Kaleida locations.
The master agreement applies to all union employees and specifies articles such as health care staffing, seniority rights, job bidding, transfers, salaries and benefits.
Addresses Quality Care
“The contract is singular in its concern with the issue of quality health care in the community,” DeVinney said. “It provides a stronger platform for nurses and other health care workers to achieve more effective staffing levels.”
Palmer explained that for the first time workers will be able to transfer to jobs throughout the Kaleida system without loss of benefits or seniority.
In negotiating salaries, said Palmer, “We needed to bring workers up to wage and benefit parity, but not at the expense of everyone else.”
“Workers at Kaleida’s lower-paid sites will see significant raises over the life of the contract, but higher-wage earners will also see upgrades,” Local 1168 Executive Vice President John Klein said.
Registered nurses will receive increases of 3 percent in the first year, 2 percent in each of the second and third years, 3 percent in the fourth year and 4 percent in the fifth year, Hayes said.
DeVinney explained that employees doing essentially the same kinds of work in different locations, such as clerical workers at Children’s Hospital as opposed to other hospitals in the system, were being paid significantly less than their counterparts. Their salaries will be the same when this contract expires May 31, 2005.
Workers earning less than the starting rates under the new pay scales will receive immediate increases, bringing them up to those rates, DeVinney said. While no worker in any bargaining unit will receive less than a 2 percent wage increase annually, she said that at the beginning of the contract, some workers will receive “as much as a 25 percent increase.”
Palmer said increases are retroactive to the expiration of individual units’ old contracts, most to the spring of 2000.
Workers in the best health plans, continuing from previous agreements, will keep them with no cost-shifting to the employees, Palmer said, while workers in other plans will see a decrease in premiums.
Palmer said workers will also have the option to sell back unused vacation time or short-term sick leave for cash or credit to 403(d) retirement plans.
The unions will return to the table within 45 days of signing the contract to negotiate improved pension plans for workers who already have them and first-time pension plans for others, he said.