Message from the President

Happy Nurses Week/Month! According to the ANA, the theme of Nurses Week this year was “the power of nurses.” I’m not exactly sure what they mean by that (probably something goofy), but I have some ideas about how we can build and use our power…

I know everyone is very interested in what’s been going on at SOMC (HPAE Local 5138). On April 18th, 5138 announced that the SOMC nurses voted overwhelmingly (98% voting yes!) to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary after their contract expired. Their contract expired on April 30th with HMH offering a pathetic “last, best, and final” offer. Their offer included only small pay increases (some of them delayed for months, and with smaller increases for current members than for new hires) and no response to the staffing ratios proposed by the nurses.

But a strike isn’t automatic, and the goal is to get a good contract, with going on strike being a last resort. For now, the nurses of 5138 have been working without a contract. Local 5138 and their bargaining committee have been using other tactics to pressure HMH to come back to the table with a better offer. On April 13, a small group of SOMC nurses marched on the HMH corporate offices in Edison. They wanted to keep it small to avoid spooking Bob Garrett, but they were nice enough to invite me along. We brought a message from the SOMC nurses about the importance of fair wages and safe staffing.

Unfortunately, Bobby G was still spooked, and he told building security to stop us in the lobby. Turns out he’s not afraid to put our patients and staff at risk, but he’s terrified to explain himself face-to-face. Sad.

The good news is, it seems like Bobbo still got the message. The next day, the 5138 bargaining committee heard from HMH that they want to come back to the table. Will they get serious this time? We’ll find out. Local 5138 can still escalate with other job actions, up to and including a strike, if they don’t.

Want to stay updated? Great! If 5138 wants our support, we won’t keep it a secret. Make sure we have your correct contact info and watch our private union Facebook group. You can also follow updates about SOMC on the Local 5138 webpage.

And let’s not forget that our own contract is expiring in September. We don’t have set bargaining dates yet (we are waiting on a response from management), but we would like to start in June. We thank the nurses of SOMC for pushing important issues forward and setting the stage for us.

Upcoming Meetings

Our next meetings will be Rep/CAT meetings on June 4th via Zoom at 6p and 730p. Invites will be sent out (if you aren’t receiving communications from the union, please update your contact info). All members are welcome at any meeting. Please mark your calendar for all our upcoming meetings:

• 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 (dinner will be served), Glendola Fire House in Belmar
• Wednesday, August 6th – Rep/Contract Action Team meetings at 6pm and 730pm via Zoom
• Wednesday, September 10th – General Membership Meetings
• Wednesday, October 1st – Rep/Contract Action Team meetings

Again, all members are welcome at any meeting! This is an great 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

We have filed a class action grievance related to this year’s performance evaluations. If you feel like your eval was unfair, please fill out this form. By telling us about your experience, you will help us fight for you and all of our members.

We know that annual performance evals are often frustrating. 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. We need everyone to be on board supporting our proposals on this and other issues.

Contract Highlight

Let’s review what the contract has to say about when and how you can be required (or not) to perform certain activities for the hospital: floating, precepting, and taking charge.

Precepting: this is the easiest to cover. Under our contract, precepting is voluntary. You can’t be required to precept another employee, student, or anyone else. You get paid $1.50/hour for precepting a fellow nurse, and you should take the preceptor course first (Article 7.07). Preceptors should have at least a year of nursing experience and be working at JSUMC for at least 3 months (Appendix D).

Floating: No one should be floated to a department where they are not clinically competent. If you believe you are being assigned to a unit where you aren’t competent to provide safe care, escalate it immediately. If you aren’t in the float pool, you can’t be floated on a core shift for the first year you are working in your department. On an extra shift, you may be deployed to another unit sooner if clinically competent (per diems should be past their orientation and clinically competent). You can’t be required to precept or be in charge on a unit you are being floated to. The contract includes a specific order for who should be floated on a given shift. You can find that and other details on floating in Article 6.06.

Taking charge: Staff nurses can’t be required to take charge if unit management (NM/ANM) is on duty. Charge is voluntary if someone is willing to volunteer. If not, it should be fairly rotated, and a log should be kept. Charge pay is currently $1.75/hour. See Article 11.04.

If you feel that management isn’t following the contract on these issues, reach out to us at [email protected].

In our upcoming contract negotiations, we will be proposing improvements and increased pay for floating, precepting, and taking charge.

We Need You!

Consider this a reminder that the five of us on the local executive board can't do it alone, so we are always looking for members to get involved. Interested in joining the Contract Action Team and helping to keep your unit informed about our contract campaign? Maybe you want to get even more involved and consider joining the Local Executive Board?

If you have specific interests, here’s your chance to explore them. If you are interested in politics you can join HPAE’s COPE committee, where we hear from politicians and decide which political candidates to support. If you want to hang out with members of other unions in the area, you could be our representative at monthly Central Labor Council meetings. Maybe you’d like to help run the local’s social media accounts? Don’t be shy. Email us at [email protected] and let us know what you’d like to do!

Happy Nurses Week!

* Disclaimer: Local 5058 cannot be held responsible for shitty memes. Blame HMH.