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New Organizing Opportunity in Hospital Pact; Buffalo Nurses Win Protection in Merger
"Effects" bargaining between three hospital unions in Buffalo, N.Y. and the newly formed CGF Health System has resulted in CWA's first major card check and organizing neutrality agreement outside of the telecommunications industry. It also provides the potential for unionizing some 1,800 new members.
CGF agreed to wage and seniority protections in the event of transfers, as well as recognition of CWA in any unit where more than 50 percent of workers are already members. It also agreed to remain neutral in any unit where the union is attempting to organize, and to recognize CWA in any such unit where 60 percent of workers sign cards agreeing to representation. The agreement virtually eliminates the need to conduct time-consuming and often contentious National Labor Relations Board elections.
"The effort that was put into this collectively by CWA Local 1168 and the national union has resulted in a one-of-a-kind agreement for health care," said CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino.
"This agreement provides a model for the job security and organizing potential that can be achieved in a merger situation," said Brooks Sunkett, CWA Vice President for public and health care workers.
Two Years in Making
Debbie Hayes, president of Nurses United/CWA Local 1168, received a tip from a hospital administrator early in 1996 that the Buffalo General Health System, Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Millard Fillmore Health System were discussing merger. The three health systems combined would have more than $612 million in revenues, approximately 50 health care delivery sites and 12,500 total employees. Her first concerns: protecting the salaries, representation and seniority rights of her members in the face of possible job cuts and transfers.
Local 1168 represented 1,161 registered nurses and 1,095 technical, clinical and clerical workers at Buffalo General; 470 technical and service employees at DeGraff Hospital which would also come into the merger, and nearly 100 members at Buffalo General affiliates General Child Care and Episcopal General Home Health Care.
Hayes realized the NLRB would require "effects bargaining," to deal with the effects of the merger on working conditions, salary and representation issues. She also realized she needed help. "No one (in our health care sector) had done this before." Hayes contacted Mancino, who pledged resources and staff, and from CWA headquarters she received commitments for legal, research, mobilization, organizing and public relations support.
In June 1996, the local received formal notice that the three health systems' boards of directors had voted to create a joint committee to explore merger. When the local learned that the chiefs of all three institutions were under consideration for the new top job, they decided to support Buffalo General CEO John Friedlander. They had already established a good working relationship with him, and Friedlander was committed to keeping a unionized workforce. He ultimately came to head CGF, which takes its acronym from Children General Fillmore.
Hayes aired the entire situation in October 1997 at a District 1 Conference meeting and got feedback from staff and other health care locals.
In January 1998, while still working toward the merger, hospital officials requested joint bargaining with CWA and two other affected unions: the AFL-CIO Hospital and Nursing Home Council and the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Leveraging a Deal
Jerry Hayes, CWA area director for upstate New York, assigned CWA Representative Dave Palmer to work with Nurses United and a bargaining committee comprising the three unions.
One advantage for the unions, Hayes realized, was that the CGF people had a full plate clearing legal hurdles and obtaining community support for the merger.
"They wanted this thing to work, and they needed the union's cooperation to make that happen," he said.
Local 1168 had originally desired for any non-union employees who transferred into represented units to go to the bottom of the seniority list, but the employers countered that it would be illegal under current labor law.
"What the employers were worried about was that the unions, which already had majority status - and this was key - would have better protection than the non-union entities in their system," said Palmer. "I believed that with that concern, the employers would agree to card check and neutrality in return for blended seniority, which would put all the employees in the system on equal footing."
The unions stuck with this position while other issues were being resolved.
Both in bargaining and in mobilizing support, said Nurses United's Hayes, "Our local executive board stepped up to challenges we have not had to deal with for almost 20 years. We had people going floor to floor in these units, talking to co-workers. It was a true team effort that got us through. I'm very proud of everyone who had anything to do with it."
The CGF merger was finalized April 1, 1998. Thirteen of 14 bargaining units ratified the effects agreement June 10.
The pact recognizes all existing site contracts, protects wages and seniority in case of transfers anywhere in the new system and provides for consolidated bargaining by extending site contracts to its expiration date of Aug. 31 2000. The agreement will be monitored by an oversight committee of three management and three union representatives.
On to Mercy
Meanwhile, said Palmer, several Catholic hospitals in Buffalo have been going through a consolidation. Though not quite a merger - each institution remains autonomous - the new Catholic Health System now has a single board that oversees five major hospitals that will consolidate services.
CWA Local 1133, which represents 250 registered nurses at Kenmore-Mercy, 500 RNs and 1,200 clerical and technical workers at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, and Local 1168, with 160 RNs at St. Joseph Hospital, faced essentially the same challenges as with CGF.
But, having participated as a panelist with Palmer and Debbie Hayes at a health care merger workshop at the October 1997 District 1 Conference, Local 1133's leader was a little ahead of the curve.
"Local 1133 President Barbara Bauch and Vice President Mary Ellen Heimbueger were a huge part of bargaining, and deserve a great deal of credit for this agreement" said Palmer. Local 1168 Vice President Sharon Schultz and District Director Linda Saleman also served on the bargaining committee.
Their effects agreement, ratified Jan. 5, is very similar to the one above. It provides the same kind of wage and seniority protections and transfer rights, and recognizes existing site contracts, but does not contain card check.
"Unfortunately," said Palmer, "We did not have the majority leverage we had with the other system in Buffalo."
CGF agreed to wage and seniority protections in the event of transfers, as well as recognition of CWA in any unit where more than 50 percent of workers are already members. It also agreed to remain neutral in any unit where the union is attempting to organize, and to recognize CWA in any such unit where 60 percent of workers sign cards agreeing to representation. The agreement virtually eliminates the need to conduct time-consuming and often contentious National Labor Relations Board elections.
"The effort that was put into this collectively by CWA Local 1168 and the national union has resulted in a one-of-a-kind agreement for health care," said CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino.
"This agreement provides a model for the job security and organizing potential that can be achieved in a merger situation," said Brooks Sunkett, CWA Vice President for public and health care workers.
Two Years in Making
Debbie Hayes, president of Nurses United/CWA Local 1168, received a tip from a hospital administrator early in 1996 that the Buffalo General Health System, Children's Hospital of Buffalo and Millard Fillmore Health System were discussing merger. The three health systems combined would have more than $612 million in revenues, approximately 50 health care delivery sites and 12,500 total employees. Her first concerns: protecting the salaries, representation and seniority rights of her members in the face of possible job cuts and transfers.
Local 1168 represented 1,161 registered nurses and 1,095 technical, clinical and clerical workers at Buffalo General; 470 technical and service employees at DeGraff Hospital which would also come into the merger, and nearly 100 members at Buffalo General affiliates General Child Care and Episcopal General Home Health Care.
Hayes realized the NLRB would require "effects bargaining," to deal with the effects of the merger on working conditions, salary and representation issues. She also realized she needed help. "No one (in our health care sector) had done this before." Hayes contacted Mancino, who pledged resources and staff, and from CWA headquarters she received commitments for legal, research, mobilization, organizing and public relations support.
In June 1996, the local received formal notice that the three health systems' boards of directors had voted to create a joint committee to explore merger. When the local learned that the chiefs of all three institutions were under consideration for the new top job, they decided to support Buffalo General CEO John Friedlander. They had already established a good working relationship with him, and Friedlander was committed to keeping a unionized workforce. He ultimately came to head CGF, which takes its acronym from Children General Fillmore.
Hayes aired the entire situation in October 1997 at a District 1 Conference meeting and got feedback from staff and other health care locals.
In January 1998, while still working toward the merger, hospital officials requested joint bargaining with CWA and two other affected unions: the AFL-CIO Hospital and Nursing Home Council and the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Leveraging a Deal
Jerry Hayes, CWA area director for upstate New York, assigned CWA Representative Dave Palmer to work with Nurses United and a bargaining committee comprising the three unions.
One advantage for the unions, Hayes realized, was that the CGF people had a full plate clearing legal hurdles and obtaining community support for the merger.
"They wanted this thing to work, and they needed the union's cooperation to make that happen," he said.
Local 1168 had originally desired for any non-union employees who transferred into represented units to go to the bottom of the seniority list, but the employers countered that it would be illegal under current labor law.
"What the employers were worried about was that the unions, which already had majority status - and this was key - would have better protection than the non-union entities in their system," said Palmer. "I believed that with that concern, the employers would agree to card check and neutrality in return for blended seniority, which would put all the employees in the system on equal footing."
The unions stuck with this position while other issues were being resolved.
Both in bargaining and in mobilizing support, said Nurses United's Hayes, "Our local executive board stepped up to challenges we have not had to deal with for almost 20 years. We had people going floor to floor in these units, talking to co-workers. It was a true team effort that got us through. I'm very proud of everyone who had anything to do with it."
The CGF merger was finalized April 1, 1998. Thirteen of 14 bargaining units ratified the effects agreement June 10.
The pact recognizes all existing site contracts, protects wages and seniority in case of transfers anywhere in the new system and provides for consolidated bargaining by extending site contracts to its expiration date of Aug. 31 2000. The agreement will be monitored by an oversight committee of three management and three union representatives.
On to Mercy
Meanwhile, said Palmer, several Catholic hospitals in Buffalo have been going through a consolidation. Though not quite a merger - each institution remains autonomous - the new Catholic Health System now has a single board that oversees five major hospitals that will consolidate services.
CWA Local 1133, which represents 250 registered nurses at Kenmore-Mercy, 500 RNs and 1,200 clerical and technical workers at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, and Local 1168, with 160 RNs at St. Joseph Hospital, faced essentially the same challenges as with CGF.
But, having participated as a panelist with Palmer and Debbie Hayes at a health care merger workshop at the October 1997 District 1 Conference, Local 1133's leader was a little ahead of the curve.
"Local 1133 President Barbara Bauch and Vice President Mary Ellen Heimbueger were a huge part of bargaining, and deserve a great deal of credit for this agreement" said Palmer. Local 1168 Vice President Sharon Schultz and District Director Linda Saleman also served on the bargaining committee.
Their effects agreement, ratified Jan. 5, is very similar to the one above. It provides the same kind of wage and seniority protections and transfer rights, and recognizes existing site contracts, but does not contain card check.
"Unfortunately," said Palmer, "We did not have the majority leverage we had with the other system in Buffalo."