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NYPNU Update - November 2011
Save the Date - NYPNU Holiday Party
The New York Professional Nurses Union welcomes all of our members to celebrate with us at our Annual Holiday Party.
Our Holiday Party will take place this year on Wednesday, December 14th at 8:30am - 10:00am & 2:00pm - 5:00pm at the NYPNU Office.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Annual Membership Meeting - Highlights
This was an election year and members had an opportunity to vote for a constitutional amendment that increases our delegate body. The amendment overwhelmingly passed and we look forward to having at least one delegate on every unit.
Other union news included President Maureen McCarthy’s explanation of the exciting plans underway to affiliate with a larger union.
Members also learned about NYPNU’s immediate plan to hire a contract organizer, hold winter lunch and learns, and to begin to prepare our membership for the 2012 Contract Negotiations.
New and old business was discussed including various staffing victories, our dissatisfaction with the several managers who clearly show distain for their staff. Our upcoming grievances include:
On a lighter note, members were able to pick up their 2012 datebook and NYPNU is YOU insulated mug. Both were well received.
ELECTION RESULTS
Congratulations to our Union Leadership for taking upon the vast responsibility of representing NYPNU RNs. Please note that your New Delegates will be available to represent members after our January 2012 delegate training.
Officers
President Maureen McCarthy, RN
Vice President Kathy Flynn, RN
Secretary Maureen Wright, RN
Treasurer Nancy Ward, RN
Executive Board
Lorelei Belo-Ynayan, RN
Regina Berg, RN
Larry Buenafe, RN
Jill Kaplan, RN
Roy Milbouer, RN
Mary Moloney, RN
Pamela Threets, RN
Delegates
Adele Adams, RN
Terri Ali, RN
Teresa Antonio, RN
Marilyn Brown-Hagemann, RN
Taniki Brown, RN
Virginia (Jenny) Carboni, RN
Theresa Chung, RN
Erika Cooper, RN
Sherry Ann Dyer, RN
Edna Igoe, RN
Charles Kyei, RN
Hadassah Lampert, RN
Claribel Lopez, RN
Marie Dominique-Louigene, RN
Asuncion Mabaquiao, RN
Lisa Peters, RN
Kathleen Reid, RN
Jean Rodd, RN
NYPNU Goes Bowling - Solidarity Event
Thank you to all our members who came out for a fun day of bowling and camaraderie. It was great meeting so many of our member’s spouses and children. To see photos of the event simply login to NYPNU website, go to media archives, and click on NYPNU Bowling 2011.
Current Events - NYSNA
As some of you may know, there are exciting and historical events taking place at The New York State Nurses Association – NYSNA. After working under expired contracts for almost a year and an arbitration ruling that cut health benefits for staff RNs, the membership voted to seat a new Board of Directors and appoint a transitional Executive Director. Already strike votes have taken place at numerous NYSNA hospitals. NYPNU fully supports the new direction NYSNA members have voted for which, we believe, will result in strong contracts, improved staffing and ratios, transparency and member involvement.
Team Stepps – Mandated Classes – Update
It is the Union’s position that these classes should be offered during the day and that nurses should be able to attend them without leaving their unit short staffed.
Management agreed to have supplemental staff to allow for this. There is also the option for nurses to take the four hour class on their own time. Management has offered straight time for this option. This is a clear violation of the collective bargaining agreement and the Department of Labor’s provisions on time worked. Overtime should be paid to all employees who chose (or were pressured) to take this class on their own time if they would have received overtime had they worked those hours. We have filed the grievance and will keep you posted. If you were paid straight time for the mandatory STEPPS class, please fax a copy of your pay stub to the union office.
Same Day
As per our contract the Same Day Unit is to be staffed with 10 RNs per day. Currently, there are 8.6 RNs who work in same day 5 days a week / 7.5 hours per day. In order for the hospital to be able to staff Same Day appropriately, and allow for VHF time, NYPNU has calculated that there should be at least 14.6 RNs budgeted for this 14 hour unit open from 6am – 8pm. NYPNU grieved this violation of the contract. Simultaneously, Same Day RNs voted to move to an 11.5 hour unit.
At the October 10th grievance hearing, management stated that there are some modifications that are taking place within the entire perioperative service both at MEETH and at the main 77th street campus. In Same Day, there will be an additional 2.6 RN positions that perform pre-testing functions and they will be moved down to MEETH. Two additional RN positions will be added to the unit and Same Day RNs are going to be also performing some phase II recovery functions (post op). This will bring Same Day at 77th street up to a total of 10.6 RNs. Management says that in the midst of this reorganization of Same Day they will have to evaluate how these changes impact the unit and the workload. They agreed PACU and Ambulatory Surgery units will remain separate units.
RN Fellowships
The Hospital has hired 12 perioperative fellows, 3 Emergency Department fellows and 1 additional pediatric fellow. LHH Department of Nursing Education has partnered with NSLIJ health care system and is now offering fellowship programs in Critical Care (Neuro and CT/ICU), Emergency Department, Pediatrics and Perioperative (OR). These fellowships will last for one year and LHH promises these new RNs a solid educational plan and development to ensure these RNs become strong practitioners in these specialty areas. NYPNU is in the process of working with the hospital to formulate in writing the parameters of the fellowships.
Open Enrollment
Staff RN Open Enrollment dates are from November 14 – 28th, 2011. Open enrollment is the time where you can add or drop a dependent, and update your marital status. In addition, you can also set up a flexible spending account, please note that flexible spending accounts do not carry over from year to year. Furthermore, you can have pre-tax dollars withheld to cover your work-related parking and public transit costs. Go onto www.benefitenroll.com to enroll in these options. Lastly, RN health benefits for 2012 will not change.
Charge RN – CCU, MICU, SICU
The Union has two pending arbitrations regarding the Hospital’s failure to provide a charge RN. MICU/SICU is scheduled for January 28, 2012 and CCU’s date is February 15, 2012.
According to our contract - “In the absence of a Clinical Care Coordinator who assumes charge responsibilities, the Employer will provide a charge nurse, who does not have a patient assignment.” This is the case not only in MICU / SICU and CCU but in Open Heart Recovery Unit, ED, and the Cardiac Cath Lab and when staffing permits on all other units. When balancing the schedule, an extra RN should be included to allow for a charge RN.. Again, this nurse should not have a patient care assignment. Please let us know, if on you unit, the Hospital is not compliant with this contract provision.
July 1st, 2011 Ratios / Staffing Standard
Radiology / CT Angio
The Radiology Department has undergone many changes during the last three years. Management promised that the changes being implemented were instrumental for Radiology to function more efficiently. Nurses got onboard -- they crossed trained, they changed their shifts, they had to await proper equipment, CT/Angio was added to the unit.
Unfortunately, good intentions aside, the unit is not functioning efficiently and NYPNU has had to intercede so often to solve a variety of issues. Currently, the unit is severely understaffed and we have asked for a thorough review of this matter. We believe the unit is functioning with a shortage of at least 7 nurses. Adding insult to injury, the nurses were told that the unit is now slated to open on weekends. This seems absurd to us when management is unable to staff the unit during the week.
As you can imagine the severe short staffing also adversely impacts nurses from other units who transport their monitored patients to the unit and are “stuck” there since there isn’t an RN to give report to, until the patient is ready to enter the procedure room. We are filing for a federal mediation session en route to arbitration.
Labor and Delivery
Management has failed to adhere to the new ratios that went into effect on July 1, 2011 in L & D. According to our calculations, with 11 L&D rooms plus the Annex, Triage, OR, Recovery areas and a designated Charge RN, there should be 53.9 RN’s to cover both day and night L&D shifts. A grievance was held on this matter and management will report back to us on staffing on December 5, 2011.
8 Uris
The ratios on the psychiatric unit have improved. The new nurse/patient ratio for this 28 bed unit is currently 1:8. This means that there needs to be four RNs scheduled per day when the unit is at full census. We have calculated that the hospital has hired enough nurses to provide 3-4 RN’s per day. When the census is not full, the unit has been properly staffed. Management has confirmed that when the census is full, supplemental staff will be provided to ensure ratio compliance. Management has promised NYPNU ansos data to prove compliance. We will continue to monitor their compliance.
Transport Monitor RN Grievance
RNs in the Cardiac Division have recently been required to transport/monitor their patients when they go for routine tests. The RN must remain with their patient until an RN can take report. Transporting monitored patients has always been done by PAs, MDs or Nurse Mangers. Requiring RN’s to transport patients is a clear contract violation per Article XXVII, Section 8 Non Nursing Function – “registered nurses shall not transport patients to routine tests.” On Friday October 14th, we held the grievance hearing and Maureen McCarthy presented our case.
In addition to the clear contract violation, Maureen McCarthy focused on how patient safety is compromised when a nurse leaves their own unit severely short staffed and over ratio. This is especially true when the nurse must spend and extended time off his/her own unit. Overtime as a work around is not a permanent fix to this violation. A follow up meeting with Phyllis Yezzo and Dr. Anthony Antonacci is scheduled for December 5th to discuss this safety hazard and dangerous practice.
Emergency Room Mediation
A big thank you to all the ER nurses who have persevered for so long in the face of so many obstacles. We are happy to report that progress is being made due in large measure to the RNs who worked so diligently in addressing their legitimate concerns. Many nurses felt deflated during a meeting with the North Shore Administration back in the Summer. North Shore’s flippant response that “there were no safety issues in the ER” was indeed infuriating after the staff eloquently explained and offered solutions to the dangerous staffing levels.
Nevertheless, despite managements’ defensive stance, staffing compliance in the ER has jumped from 10% in June to 90% in September. Many of your concerns were addressed. On September 20, 2011 NYPNU took part in a mediation session with Management and a federal mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The meeting was productive and we are able to adjourn the upcoming arbitration. There is still a lot to be done, but so much has been accomplished. Again, thank you to all of our ER nurses.
RN Postings Grievance - Dialysis
The NYPNU office has received several calls from members stating that RN’s have been hired for positions that were never posted in the pink sheets. This violates Article IX, Section 9 of our contract. In August, we submitted a request for all 2011 pink sheet postings for both NYPNU and non-NYPNU positions. We will pursue this issue until we are satisfied that all positions have been properly posted and rectify any occurrence where a member did not have a chance to apply for a position they were eligible for.
Part of this grievance includes the Dialysis Unit. There have been no RN positions posted for this unit. We believe the Dialysis Nurses should be in our bargaining unit. In 2003, an arbitrator’s decision allowed LHH to subcontract this service out because it was “fiscally prudent.” It is our understanding that NorthShore LIJ has chosen not to subcontract this service. If this is the case the RN positions should be posted per the contract. We will keep you updated on this grievance.
Congratulations Adele Adams - MEETH
NYPNU delegate Adele Adams will be honored as a recipient of the prestigious 2011 Wholeness of Life Award. Her accomplishments will be recognized at a Thanksgiving gathering on December 1st, 2011 from 320pm – 430pm in Einhorn Auditorium.
Donations of non-perishable food items, cash and checks will be accepted at this Share the Harvest Event for the Yorkville Common Pantry.
Retirees Committee
We are in the process of creating a NYPNU Retirees Committee. We have asked the hospital for a list of NYPNU RNs who have retired and they are researching that on our behalf. We want to have an event especially for them and create a tradition of honoring our retirees and staying connected to their expertise. If you know of any NYPNU retirees, please call the union office and give us their contact information so we can add them to this new database. Thank you.
Attendance Arbitration
In April 2010 management, in an effort to deter absenteeism, implemented a revised attendance policy. NYPNU believed the new policy made it more difficult for 11.5 hour nurses to take their contractually allotted sick time and filed for arbitration. Ultimately the arbitrator ruled in management’s favor stating that he not find that the attendance policy violated the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
The arbitrator’s decision is available at the Union office if you would like to read the decision in its entirety. To avoid inadvertently running afoul of the new policy, we encourage members to familiarize themselves with the provisions by picking up a copy of it at the office or by going online to the NYPNU website.