Let’s Keep it Going…
The message we sent management by leafleting, wearing our Union buttons and talking to each other about management’s horrible Clinical Ladder proposal worked! Providence heard our disapproval and they gave us an improved version of Clinical Ladder at our last negotiations on Wednesday, September 21. Our 121RN Bargaining Team is now integrating some aspects of our current Clinical Ladder program to present to management as a counter-proposal. We need to keep up our united front because management presented the rest of their economic proposal, and it’s not pretty.
Providence Wage Proposal
- Anniversary increase on October 1, 2011, for which only 10 percent of RNs would be eligible.
- Anniversary increase on October 1, 2012, for which less than 30 percent of RNs would qualify.
- 1 percent across-the-board increase for all RNs on October 1, 2013.
We all know we need more than just a 1 percent increase in three years. The cost of so many things we buy has gone up: gas, groceries, car insurance, mortgages / rent, and utilities, just to name a few. Our wages must keep up with costs.
Healthcare
Providence management has also refused to guarantee our team that the employee portion of health insurance costs won’t go up more than 10 percent over the three years of the contract. Providence has refused to make that guarantee. Our team recognizes that healthcare costs are increasing and we’re willing to pay our share. But we’re not willing to pay it all.
We’ve given our employer a fair proposal based on the fact that they recorded more than $12 million in net income after expenses. St. Joseph also sent more than $27 million to its parent company, Providence Health & Services, for so-called “corporate management fees.” Is this the money Providence uses to hire folks like the attorney who low-balls employees and insists that the company is poor even though they’re taking in far more than they spend?
We’re asking for an across-the-board raise that will meet the increased cost of living, and we’ll accept nothing less. Let’s continue to support our team as we have been doing. We made gains in Clinical Ladder, and we can do the same with wages and benefits.
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