The nurses at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center are back at the bargaining table after a three-day lockout in June. The nurses, represented by Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), were a part of the “One Voice” campaign, which involved the union negotiating contracts for 7,000 nurses and health professionals at nine hospitals throughout New Jersey.

With a strike deadline looming, each of the HPAE locals included in “One Voice” agreed to contracts that included provisions for retirement security, workplace safety, safe staffing and maintaining union rights for nurse supervisors. Englewood was and still is the lone holdout. The biggest roadblock is the hospital’s plan to freeze the nurses’ existing defined benefit pension plan and replacing it with a new defined contribution plan.

The nurses had planned to strike on June 2, but HPAE agreed to withdraw its strike after state lawmakers called for a 10-day cooling-off period between HPAE and the hospital. The nurses delayed the strike “to protect patient care and to allow for negotiations under less heated conditions,” says HPAE president Ann Twomey. Nonetheless, hospital management went ahead with its decision to lock out the nurses.

At press time, the contract had been extended to June 21 and the nurses had returned to work. Talks between the two parties resumed June 13, and while some progress was made, the most recent bargaining session ended with the union again issuing a 10-day notice of intent to strike.

The nurses have also filed unfair labor practice charges against Englewood for  withholding information about the costs and savings of eliminating their pension plan, as well as for management’s threatened suspension of nurses wearing union stickers. The union says management’s threat violated the nurses’ right to “engage in concerted activities” for the purpose of collective bargaining.

“The act of threatening suspensions for union activity goes to the heart of our fight to preserve our right to speak up through our union,” says Stephanie Orrico, nurse and president of HPAE Local 5004, which represents 660 nurses at Englewood.

“The hospital still refuses to recognize the rights of staff nurses to this essential protection. Secondly, the hospital’s refusal to provide us with the true costs of the pension plan led directly to the lockout.”

In the meantime, nurse members have continued to leaflet the Englewood community and the businesses of the hospital board of directors, reminding the public that the issues in the contract negotiations remain unresolved.

“Without our rights as unionized nurses, we couldn’t ensure the vigilance of a nurse by your bedside,” says Orrico. “In the midst of a nursing shortage, the hospital would be short-sighted to focus on eliminating our pensions, and should instead be addressing the serious issues of patient care and working conditions.”

HPAE locals ratified agreements at Pascack Valley Hospital, Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital, Cooper University Hospital, Virtua Memorial Hospital of Mount Holly, Southern Ocean County Hospital, Palisades Medical Center and Meadowlands Hospital.

All of the agreements include provisions for ensuring safe staffing levels for patients, improved health and safety conditions for staff, retirement security, and wages that provide recognition of experience and seniority.

In addition, HPAE successfully negotiated contract language in each tentative agreement to maintain the nurses’ right to collective bargaining and patient advocacy through their union, in the event the National Labor Relations Board decides to allow hospitals to categorize nurses who take on charge duty as supervisors and therefore make them ineligible for protections under the labor law.

Standing together
HPAE rally kicks off national crusade for nurses’ rights

Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), the AFT Healthcare affiliate in New Jersey, kicked off negotiations for its “One Voice” campaign in early 2006. The campaign’s goal is to establish a common set of contract standards for staffing, pensions, salaries and retiree health benefits. The May 24 rally in Liberty State Park was part of the union’s effort to speak with “One Voice” on its issues.

An enthusiastic crowd from across the state rallied in support of the campaign and called attention to an upcoming ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on whether nurses who act in a supervisory capacity from time to time are supervisors and therefore ineligible for union protection. Getting contract language to protect nurses from the expected NLRB decision was a key goal for all “One Voice” contracts, and HPAE notified the hospitals involved that its members intended to strike if they refused to guarantee those protections.

“We are demanding from our employers that they give us a contractual guarantee that they will not challenge the status of our members, regardless of decisions by this board now or in the future,” HPAE president Ann Twomey told her members.

“I can think of no better place to take a stand than right here in New Jersey. You are on the frontlines of this national fight,” said AFL-CIO president Sweeney. “Safe staffing, decent working conditions and retirement security are issues not just here in New Jersey but in every workplace all across this country.” And, he added, “The right of charge nurses and lead professionals to have a voice at work through their union isn’t just an issue in the healthcare industry.”

The union leader noted that a decision to reclassify workers as supervisory and strip them of their union rights would affect every worker in every state.

“What we have before us is one of the most important struggles in the recent history of the movement,” said Sweeney. “This is a struggle we can win if we stand together and fight together.”

“Being a union member means being able to speak up about the things that matter to us and conditions that we know have to be changed,” said Twomey. “The work that we do through our unions is only possible if we have the freedom and protection to act and speak up for what we believe is right.”

AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese, who also attended the rally, assured members that they were not alone in the fight to maintain their union rights.

“We are your brothers and sisters,” said Cortese. “We are all standing with you because we know that your fight is our fight.”