Elimination of mandatory overtime for clinical hourly employees and a 16 percent salary increase over the life of the agreement are the centerpieces of the new four-year contract that was overwhelmingly ratified by the FPE/AFT's University Health Professionals affiliate in Farmington, Conn.

Specifically, the new contract establishes a voluntary overtime pilot project that includes wage and vacation enhancements for participants. The voluntary overtime provisions of the contract affect the UHP's 600 clinical hourly employees--nurses, medical assistants, medical technologists, radiological technologists, pharmacists and so on--but UHP president Jean Morningstar says, "the rest of the membership took up their cause." The contract also guarantees workers about a 16 percent salary increase between general wage and step increases over the life of the agreement; provides a $1,000 adoption benefit; increases the number of days that can be designated as family sick days; and gives an additional night shift bonus to employees hired after July 1995.

The new contract is the news, but the story is how the union overcame barriers--namely, finances and labor-management relations--to deliver a veto-proof contract that first had to be approved by the Legislature.

"I think it was a combination of our presence at the capitol, our visibility in the health center and in the media, and the personal appeals and relationships that UHP used to get people's attention," says Morningstar. State Sen. Melodie Peters, a vice president of the Connecticut Federation of Educational and Professional Employees (CFEPE), was a UHP advocate at the capitol as well as with university officials, says Morningstar, who also is a CFEPE vice president.

UHP represents 1,800 full-time and part-time workers in more than 200 job titles at the University of Connecticut Health Center and John Dempsey Hospital. The new contract takes effect July 1, 2002.