SLH Negotiations Update: 5/28/24

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Basic labor law requirements in bargaining is that the Union starts high and can only work our way down with each proposal while the Employer starts low and must work their way up with each proposal. With the goal of each side trying to reach a middle ground that is acceptable to the Employees and Employer.

There are no guarantees of anything when you begin bargaining, but the goal of your bargaining committee is to get as much as we can without leaving anything behind. Our opening economic proposal included a more than 12% increase to wages for the term of the contract, and we have had to move down to 6.75% in order to continue to make movement. If neither side continues to make any movement, it is called impasse and we then have to bring the issue into arbitration.

Under Article 19/Termination of Contract in the current contract, it states that if the parties cannot reach an agreement those items that have not been agreed upon will be brought to arbitration for an arbitrator to determine which team’s proposals to accept.

At the start of the day both teams were working on “what if” proposals, to explore areas of compromise on specific items without apprehension of being locked into something that we don’t want to agree to. By mid-day we were not making any progress in reaching an agreement the membership would accept so we ended what-if discussions and presented an official proposal.

The Union officially proposed a 2.25% across the board increase in year one effective 4/1/24 and a 2.25% across the board increase in years 2 and 3. We also proposed a $50/month increase to health insurance, paid by the Employer in each year of the contract as well as proposed increases to the shift differential at the time of ratification and increases again in 2025 and 2026. Again, this is all part of the Union’s last proposal, these have not been agreed to by the Employer.

The Employer’s last official proposal was 4/11/24 :

Proposed wage increases in year one averaged as follows:

ED/Endoscopy CNAs 1.84%
CNAs 2.36%
Instrument processing 0.98%
Grade 3 1.07%
Grade 2 0.92%
Grade 1 0.88%

The Employer is not proposing any backpay; instead, the wages would go into effect no later than 30 days after ratification.

Year 2: across the board increase of 1%
Year 3: across the board increase of 1%

Health insurance -- Employer will contribute an additional:

$0 in 2025
Additional $5/month in 2026
Additional $5/month in 2027

Shift differential: Employer has no proposal on increasing the current shift differential rates.

If the Employer continues with no substantial Employer contribution increases to the health insurance premiums (which on average go up a minimum of $50/month per year), the committee believes it would be more beneficial to go to arbitration to resolve the issues. The Arbitrator would award either team’s proposal or something in the middle, but it would not be less than the Employer’s last proposal. We are scheduled to meet again next week, at which time your committee will decide if additional dates should be scheduled for negotiations, if it is time to go to arbitration or if we have an agreement that should be brought forward to you, the membership, to vote on.