Message from the President

Hey everybody. Another month has gone by, and with our contract expiring in September, that means we are a month closer to contract negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. In early April, we sent HMH a letter of intent to bargain. This serves as formal notice that we intend to negotiate a new contract. In our letter, we proposed multiple bargaining dates starting in June. We are waiting for them to get back to us.

If we are going to win a good contract, we need everyone informed and involved so we can all push for the same goals, including better pay, better staffing, better safety, and better working conditions. Management needs to know we are united and determined to achieve the improvements that we and our patients deserve. If you want to get informed and involved, there is a great place to start: the Local 5058 Annual Education Day on Wednesday, May 7th. There will be a program with CEUs in the morning, and a meeting in the afternoon to discuss negotiations. You will have a chance to meet the team that will be at the bargaining table this year and get a rundown of the proposals we have already written. We’ve also set aside time to discuss questions, concerns, and suggestions for contract negotiations from all members in attendance. It's coming up, so please RSVP for our Education Day soon. Bring your ideas for our next contract!

On a related note, our comrades at SOMC (Local 5138) just took a strike vote, with over 98% voting to strike if necessary. We congratulate them on sending such a powerful message. They aren't going on strike just yet, but with their contract expiring at the end of April, management should start getting serious if they don't want to risk all the SOMC nurses walking out. You can read the update about the strike vote and other updates from Local 5138 on the 5138 page at hpae.org. Let's make sure we are there to support them if they need us.

Upcoming Meetings

Last call! Please RSVP here for the HPAE Local 5058 Education Day and Contract Kick Off on May 7th from 9a to 3p. It’ll be at the Spring Lake Manor, 415 Highway 71, Spring Lake, NJ. Enjoy time with your co-workers and union friends for breakfast and lunch, earn contact hours, and discuss our upcoming contract negotiations.

Please also put these upcoming meetings on your calendar:

• Wednesday, June 4th – Rep/Contract Action Team meetings at 6pm and 730pm via Zoom
• Wednesday, July 16th – General Membership meetings in person at 5pm and 745pm, Glendola Fire House in Belmar

All members are welcome at any meeting! This is an excellent opportunity to stay informed, ask questions, and get involved in the direction of our union. We are actively looking for members to represent their departments as part of the Contract Action Team (CAT). With negotiations coming up, CAT plays a critical role in ensuring that our collective bargaining efforts are effective. Your involvement can make a big difference as we approach negotiations!

Annual Performance Evaluations

It’s annual performance evaluation time. This is often a frustrating time for many of us. Managers can be very arbitrary about the way they evaluate nurses and often don’t seem to value all the work we do. This is something we are planning to address in contract negotiations—we don’t like how subjective the evaluations are, and we don’t want them to limit the raises we get each year. If we're going to succeed, we need everyone to be on board backing our proposals on this and other issues.

In the meantime, we have set up a form for anyone to fill out if you feel like you weren’t fairly evaluated by your manager. We’ll most likely be filing a class action grievance over this year’s performance evaluations, and by filling out the form you will help us make the case that the evaluations are not being done fairly. Please fill out the form here.

Contract Highlights

According to our contract, you must be given at least 90 minutes’ notice when being cancelled for any extra shift. The hospital must also follow the cancellation order laid out in the contract (Article 4.09D). If you are cancelled late, or you were cancelled improperly because they didn’t follow the appropriate order, you are entitled to be paid for the shift. It’s not unusual for us to get people paid in this situation, so don’t keep it to yourself!

Another question that has come up recently is flexing (being sent home in the middle of a shift if management feels they can get by with less staff). Mandatory flexing happens at many hospitals, but it does not happen to nurses at JSUMC. Our contract does not allow for it on any shift, whether it’s a core or extra shift. You can of course go home voluntarily if they ask for a volunteer, but you can’t be forced. If anyone has been required to go home mid-shift, it’s another example of a situation where we would want them to be made whole for any lost pay. Email us at [email protected].

Disciplines

We want to give everyone a heads up about some recent disciplines we have seen, so you can better protect yourself:

For the first time in a long time, we have seen management writing people up for parking in non-designated areas. They seem to think that being harsher about parking rules will help to make parking easier. Of course, they should have seen the parking crisis coming a long time ago and planned for it sooner. But please be careful.

We also sometimes see disciplines for frequent absences. Keep in mind that we have protection under New Jersey law for a certain number of callout hours in each calendar year, and those callouts can't be held against you if it's for a legitimate reason. You can find more detailed information on the state’s sick leave law at the NJ Department of Labor. After you exhaust that time, you may be subject to discipline after 3 "occurrences" of unprotected callouts. If you’re wondering what that means, you can ask your manager for a copy of their policy on Absenteeism and Lateness, or check policystat. Also, if you are absent from work often for a medical reason or some other potentially protected reason, you might want to consider applying for an accommodation through Sedgwick. That would help protect you.

One other issue we have seen recently is expired certifications and licenses, or required education modules not being done. Try to stay current with all required training and education. According to our contract, you should be given a chance to do required training during your normal work hours as much as possible. If you don’t have time to do it at work, then according to our contract and the law, you must still be paid for any time spent doing mandatory training, even if you do it at home! Also, keep in mind that if you are on a protected leave of absence, you can’t be required to do work while on leave, and you should be given a chance to do any needed training upon your return. If you have any problems with this kind of thing, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

Remember that, for any meeting which could lead to discipline, you have the contractual and legal right to have a union rep present. The rep can be any union member, and can serve as a witness, ask management clarifying questions, and raise contract language or other important facts in your defense. Our contract also provides a grievance and arbitration process which gives us a way to fight against unjust disciplinary action. For an interesting example of the power of the arbitration process, check out this recent article about nurses at an NYU hospital in Brooklyn (like the nurses at NYU, we have been successful in getting members who were unjustly fired returned to work with back pay).

Understanding COPE: Why it Matters

As union members, we understand the importance of collective action in securing better working conditions, wages, and benefits. However, our fight doesn’t stop at the bargaining table. To protect and advance our rights, we must also have a strong voice in the political arena. That’s where COPE—the Committee on Political Education—comes in.

HPAE members formed COPE to educate our elected officials about what is really going on in the health care system—and to fight for change. COPE organizes grass-roots mobilization efforts to win important legislation, and tracks the voting records of our state and federal legislators on our issues. Using this information, COPE also interviews and screens candidates for office, making recommendations to HPAE members.

Through COPE, HPAE members have been instrumental in the drafting of new legislation, in providing testimony before legislators and government officials, and in organizing letter-writing efforts to persuade elected officials to support legislation we care about. Getting involved with COPE is simple and impactful. When you joined the union and filled out a membership application, you may have volunteered to contribute to COPE. If that’s the case, you will see COPE deductions listed on each paystub. If not, you can volunteer to contribute an amount of your choice with each paycheck by submitting a COPE check-off form.

If you would rather contribute to COPE in other ways, you can join us at quarterly HPAE COPE meetings. Email us at [email protected] if you’re interested. These meetings are a chance to stay informed on political issues and get involved in shaping our union’s political strategy. Your voice matters, and your participation can help us make a real difference as we advocate for safe staffing and other important legislation.

Recent News from the HMH C-Suite

Bob Garrett’s personal compensation in 2021: $5,562,425

Bob Garrett’s personal compensation in 2022: $5,984,779

Bob Garrett’s personal compensation in 2023: $7,772,269 *

Bob Garrett’s response when you tell him we need guaranteed minimum staffing ratios to protect patients’ lives:

* These are real numbers which HMH, as a "non-profit," is required to report in annual financial statements. As an example, see their 2023 Form 990, showing the compensation of their highest paid employees. Bob Garrett gave himself a 29.8% raise in 2023! We don’t know what he gave himself in 2024 yet because HMH waits forever to file their reports.