We will share information about contract negotiations and other issues on this page. Please talk to your colleagues about important union topics and connect with your MNA representatives. The strength of our union is based on these conversations and how well we work together to achieve our goals.
- Send an email about non-urgent issues to slhunion@gmail.com. Emails are checked weekly.
- You can find the hospital’s staffing grids and additional information about our staffing contract language at: www.massnurses.org/StLukesGrids.
- File an unsafe staffing report: https://action.massnurses.org/forms/unsafe-staffing.
- MNA Bargaining Committee
Terri deMedeiros, Co-Chair, ED
Kim Beaulieu, Co-Chair, Multi-Site Float
Victoria Rogers, Secretary, ED
Jane Mulvey, Grievance Chair, Crapo
Aisha Amado, CLC Delegate, Crapo
Jessica Kruger, Membership Coordinator, ED
Vanessa Branco, Young Worker Delegate, FCU
Cheryl Woolson, Committee, OR
Meg Pilato, Committee, Nuc Med
Kate Duff, Committee, Endo
Helena McClafferty, Committee, ASU
Jeff Almeida, Committee, OR
Kelsey Houlihan, Committee, FCU
Brooke Baptiste, Committee, ASU
Jessica Mills, Committee, ASU
Kelsey McGinnis, Committee, PACU
Megan Oliver, Committee, OR
Mariann Monteiro, Committee, Pedi
Kristen Frazier, Committee, Bourne
Barbara Webster, Committee, Knowles
Rob Hooper, Committee, ED
Alisa Allison, Committee – Multi-site Float
MNA Rep: Wendy McGill,
WMcGill@mnarn.org; 781-830-5787
Negotiation Updates
Jan. 21, 2025
Jan. 8, 2025
MNA Proposal Seeks Equitable Planned Time Off
On January 8, we met for our 4th bargaining session. Management gave us proposals on per diems and seniority. Below are our proposal summaries.
Planned Time Off: We proposed that time off be allocated equally during all non-prime time weeks, including holiday weeks. This allocation should be based on fully staffed units, not on immediate staffing problems or how individual managers decide to allocate time. We are also seeking to address a problem in which 12-hour nurses have been denied time off for part of their shift because hours are not being properly distributed per shift.
In addition, we are proposing to shorten the prime time period. Right now, prime time is the second Sunday in May to the third Saturday in September. Our proposal would reduce it to Memorial Day through Labor Day. Nurses should be guaranteed a week off during the actual peak vacation season.
Schedules: Our proposal would simplify our scheduling language to ensure full- and part-time nurses are not displaced by per diems, MTMs or travelers and that per diems are not displaced by MTMs or travelers.
Daylight Savings: This proposal places current practice into our contract. Nurses receive 1.5x pay for the extra hour worked during fall back and are paid their full shift during spring forward.
New Hire Orientation: We proposed to adjust our current contract language to better match current practice.
FCU On-Call Update
We had an excellent turnout of FCU nurses at last labor management meeting to discuss mandatory on-call. As we described in a previous bulletin, FCU should not have mandatory on-call because it is a 24/7 service. Nurses shared personal experiences about how the hospital is demoralizing them with its use of on-call. We continue to demand management address this issue and have made a proposal to make on-call voluntary in the FCU.
Dec. 4, 2024
MNA Committee Makes On-Call and Sleep Time Proposals
Join us for Our Next Bargaining Session January 8
We are working to put the remainder of our proposals on the table. Today we delved into addressing problems with the hospital’s on-call system and making improvements to sleep time. We also worked on a comprehensive ETO proposal focused on enhancing time off availability and scheduling. If you have any ideas or questions about any of the topics we bring up in bargaining, please reach out to a member of our bargaining committee.
On-Call
Right now, the hospital is often not paying nurses for times when they have to answer their on-call pager. For example, if a nurse’s on-call shift starts at 7 p.m., the hospital is paging them at 6:30 to tell them to come in at 7 without paying them until 7. This is not appropriate and must be fixed in our contract and Kronos. We also proposed that nurses on call cannot be called in before the start of their on-call shift.
In addition, we proposed that FCU not be subject to on-call because it is a 24/7 service and that weeknight on-call hours for the ASU and PACU be 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. to reflect staffed hours. We will also propose an increase in the on-call differential.
Sleep Time
Our current sleep time contract language says that a nurse on-call who is called in between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and is scheduled to work the immediately following shift that begins no later than 11 a.m. is eligible for two hours release time. Our proposal would also make the release time pay equal to the number of hours worked between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., but you would receive no less than two hours of paid sleep time. I.E., if you are called in and work 4 hours, you would receive 4 hours of paid sleep time.
Management Proposals, Responses, and Tentative Agreements
- Management proposed updates on tuition reimbursement, and professional certification and recertification reimbursement.
- The hospital wants to be able to release nurses in two-hour increments in addition to the current four-hour increments. They also want to adjust the order in which nurses may be released depending on their status. We have a different perspective on release and will be responding.
- Management made a proposal regarding imposing new requirements on nurses about communicating about their protected leaves or risk the leaves converting to unprotected.
- They gave initial responses to our proposals on vacancies and uniforms and are reviewing our preceptor proposal.
- We reached agreements on MNA proposals regarding contact hours and annual competencies that will take effect when our full contract is settled and ratified.
Nov. 21, 2024
Initial Proposals Exchanged in 2nd Bargaining Session
During our second negotiation session, our first step was finalizing ground rules. This is an agreement between both sides on how bargaining will proceed. For example, our rules speak to having reasonable periods for caucus times between the parties seeing each other at the table. They also include rules about meeting space, the release of MNA committee members, and giving notice before going to the media, among others.
After signing off on ground rules, management put forward proposals related to restricted call, assault pay, and bereavement. We will be evaluating their proposals.
Our initial set of proposals to management included contract language addressing re-assignment and release, reduction in hours, vacancies, attire and appearance, preceptorship, bereavement, contact hours, and making sure required competencies are offered at nurses’ home site. On preceptorship, we made the point that there are many more novice nurses at St. Luke’s requiring training from more experienced nurses. We are seeking greater compensation for nurses who precept, especially in specialty areas, to make sure nurses are incentivized to precept and newer nurses get the training and support they need.
We also spent time developing new proposals. A lot of our focus during caucus was on creating a proposal to address the problems with on-call in FCU. Management is using on-call inappropriately. FCU nurses are almost always called in when they are on call – evidence that this is just a way management is staffing the hospital without hiring more permanent nurses. FCU is a 24/7 service and should not even have on-call. The hospital should staff appropriately instead of relying on this dissatisfying approach. In addition, management is making nurses go into the FCU at 7 a.m. to physically pick their on-call hours on a first-come-first-serve basis. This has created conflict among nurses and incredible frustration.
We believe changing on-call to voluntary in the FCU could address this issue. This would allow nurses to pick up on-call if they want to and receive overtime. We will update you when we present additional proposals.
Tentative Agreements Reached
We reached a tentative agreement (TA) on management’s restricted call proposal to change the hourly rate from $14.25 to match MA minimum wage, as well as a TA on bereavement that now includes the parent and grandparent of nurse’s children and step-siblings. TA’s do not take effect until our full contract is ratified.