Print
- Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), taking time out from a busy day of appointments across upstate New York in late March, met with nurses from Albany Medical Center at the Albany International Airport. The RNs at Albany Medical have been trying to organize with the New York State United Teachers. The senator sat down with AMC RN treasurer Cindy Seay and NYSUT executive vice president Alan Lubin to talk about issues in the local campaign and the national nursing shortage. Schumer expressed his willingness to help.
- Nearly 75 union protestors gathered at the Baltimore County Courthouse April 10 in a show of support for the county’s 96 public health nurses, in contentious contract negotiations over salaries and cell phones. The nurses, represented by the AFT’s Baltimore County Federation of Public Health Nurses, were protesting the county’s "take it or leave it" 3 percent salary offer for the contract year starting July 2001. Such a modest increase "would make veteran Baltimore County public health nurses among the lowest-paid community nurses in Maryland," said Ann Lowekamp, president of BCFPHN, a 15-year county-employed registered nurse. The union also used the rally to speak out against the county’s resistance to contract language providing cell phones to the nurse corps. Cell phones, Lowekamp says, are a health and safety issue for both the nurses who make home visits and the clients they serve.
- The 1,500 RNs of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York welcomed more than 50 LPNs into their ranks Feb. 27, when the new unit voted 28-4 for representation by the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers. A major issue of concern to LPNs, says FN/UFT special representative Angela Kahn, was the lack of a pay raise for five years; some LPNs have seen their salaries cut. These nurses, who often provide round-the-clock care for dying patients and pediatric cases, are excited about being a part of the union, says Kahn, who notes they are now electing their own union officers and preparing to bargain their first contract.
- Lutheran Medical Center RNs, also members of the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers in New York City, came to agreement on a new two-year contract, voting in March for its ratification. The agreement, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001, gives the nurses an 8 percent pay raise over two years. Also, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001, new graduates will be paid $50,000 and $51,000 in 2002. The nurses won an increase in per diem rates, experience differentials, and in-charge pay. Additionally, effective in 2002, domestic partners will be eligible for certain benefits currently applicable to spouses. "The retroactivity of this contract is unheard of," says FN/UFT president Anne Goldman. The higher entry salaries and the maintenance of the defined-benefit pension plan, also key to this new agreement, will go a long way toward recruitment and retention of staff, she added.
