We are all aware that our Union contract with Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center management expires at the end of this month. Your Bargaining Team of Union registered nurses has been at the negotiation table for multiple sessions compromising on proposals and coming to agreement on many articles. Up until this past Friday, I believed that the Union was making good progress and would have a contract by the end of November.

Unfortunately, hospital management has proposed that senior nurses with 10 years and more service should start paying a premium for their medical benefits for the first time in more than 30 years!  I recall many times when speaking with nurses how important it was for them to get to their 10-year anniversary in order for them to have free medical benefits. The 10-year anniversary is a milestone that is rewarded with free medical benefits. Each junior nurse looks forward to reaching that milestone. Hospital management is insisting that after all these years, the 10-year plus nurse should not be rewarded with free medical benefits. In the other hospitals we represent, nurses are offered a free plan for themselves and family.

Our bargaining team, led by our General Counsel, Pamela Chandran, has repeatedly informed management that we will not accept a contract with this take-away where senior nurses must start paying a premium for their medical benefits. On Nov. 23, hospital management came to the negotiation table and again submitted the same proposal requiring senior nurses to pay a premium for their medical benefits.

For our last two contract renewals, management came to the Union and asked for the nurses’ help with the hospital’s financial bottom line by accepting lump-sum bonuses in lieu of raises. Our members accepted this because the nurses wanted to assist the hospital in its time of need, and agreed to honor the hospital’s request to help it get out of the financial woods.

This negotiation is a very different matter. The hospital is doing very well financially. It is now the hospital’s turn to treat the nurses with the respect they deserve, and show appreciation for the help we gave them. Instead, they have chosen to do the opposite and are now trying to take advantage of the nurses. We cannot let this happen. If we allow the senior nurses to start paying premiums, the premiums will only get higher for all nurses in years to come.

Those of you who have been in contract fights with me against Pomona management are very familiar with this behavior – and how strong we are when we stand together and face it down. As a group of more than 1,000 nurses, we must not allow the hospital to make these changes. Together we have been through this many times with CEO Richard Yokum and HR Director Ray Inge. Once again, we will need to stand together and fight these proposed changes. The nurses deserve better! Every day the nurses work at the bedside providing care for patients who have health care. Our nurses deserve the same.

I have great respect for Pamela and our Bargaining Team for representing the members at the negotiation table. I feel that our team has been excellent in making the necessary points to management. I have no faith in Pomona management to do the right thing. Stand up for nurses and our families and join me at the informational picket on Dec. 1 in front of the hospital, where we will vote to strike, if necessary, to protect our members. I remain honored to work with the Pomona nurses! We can do this!

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and I’ll see you on the picket line!

In unity,

Sue

Sue Weinstein, RN 121RN Executive Director