Message from the President

Congratulations everyone! We have a new contract that builds on the wins of other HPAE locals and other unions across our area. This includes our first enforceable staffing ratios, increases to base wages and some differentials, and other significant improvements to our working conditions. We also fought off some obnoxious proposals from HMH including flexing and harsher disciplines for canceling shifts. We accomplished this without going on strike—and as much as I would have loved to see the looks on management’s faces if we went on strike, I think the new contract is more important.

I want to thank everyone who got involved, whether it was leafleting, attending bargaining sessions, or making sure your coworkers voted to authorize a strike. The unprecedented strike authorization vote, where 95% of over 1,400 voting members voted to authorize a strike, sent a very strong message and made a real difference in negotiations. I want to give a special shoutout to members who volunteered on the Contract Action Team, which played such an important role in keeping our entire local informed and activated.

Below we will review the details of some of the wins we achieved in the new contract and how they will affect us. And if you take one message away from this, it should be to stay involved—come to meetings, help us enforce our new contract, and fill out those short staffing forms, because that’s how we will hold HMH accountable if they aren’t meeting the ratios in our contract. It’ll take a team effort.

Upcoming Meetings

Our next meetings will be General Membership Meetings on Thursday, October 30th at 5p and 7:45p at Glendola Fire House in Belmar. Food will be served. 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 these last meetings of 2025:

• Thursday, October 30th – General Membership Meetings at 5p and 745p (dinner will be served), Glendola Fire House in Belmar
• Wednesday, December 10th – General Membership Meetings at 530p and 8p via Zoom

Contract Win: Staffing Ratios

In 2025, we won our first enforceable staffing ratios! Here are the minimum ratios in our new contract:

• 1 nurse for every 1 patient in Active Labor
• 1 nurse for every 2 patients in Critical Care
• 1 nurse for every 2 patients in Labor and Delivery units
• 1 nurse for every 3 couplets in Postpartum units
• 1 nurse for every 3 patients in Stepdown units (effective June 1, 2026)
• 1 nurse for every 4 patients in Pediatric units
• 1 nurse for every 5 patients in Inpatient Behavioral Health units
• 1 nurse for every 5 patients in Medical/Surgical and Telemetry units
• If a nurse is assigned to all telemetry patients, the nurse’s assignment will be one nurse for every 4 patients (effective September 1, 2026)

We won new staffing guidelines for the ED which are also enforceable. Those include:

• 7am–11am — 15 nurses
• 11am–3pm — 24 nurses
• 3pm–7pm — 26 nurses
• 7pm–11pm — 26 nurses
• 11pm–3am — 16 nurses
• 3am–7am — 15 nurses
• A Voluntary On-Call nurse called in when Pod B reaches 31 patients, 36 patients, and 41 patients

In addition to the above, the contract states that “in all other areas, the hospital shall maintain the current staffing patterns and staffing guidelines and skill mix.” We want to enforce that language as follows:

• Orthopedics (BR5): 1 nurse to 4.5 patients
• Trauma stepdown (MEH6): 1 nurse to 4 patients
• Observation (ACK1): 1 nurse to 4 patients
• Oncology (MEH7, BR6): 1 nurse to 3.9 patients
• BMT (BR6): 1 nurse to 3.5 patients
• Trauma: 1 nurse to 2 patients
• Maternity: 1 nurse to 6 patients in newborn nursery; 1 nurse to 1-3 patients in antepartum depending on acuity
• OR: 1 nurse to 1 patient
• EP and Cath lab: 1 nurse to 1 or 2 patients depending on procedure
• Prep/PACU/Endo: ASPAN Patient Classification/Staffing Recommendations

In order to enforce these ratios, we need everyone to fill out short staffing forms when the ratios are violated (also feel free to fill them out for any other reason when you feel staffing is unsafe to protect yourself). The way the contract language is written, enforcement depends on there being a pattern of short staffing over a calendar quarter. The fourth quarter started October 1, so we need everyone to help hold management accountable starting now. If there is a pattern of violations on a particular unit, and management doesn't fix the problem, our first pass at filing for arbitration will be in January 2026.

Contract Win: Better Pay

We also won solid pay increases with our new contract:

• Increases to base wages: for everyone in the union on the date of ratification (9/19), your base wage will increase by $3.50, or to the rate for your credited years of experience on the new wage scale, whichever is higher. The scale here is for staff RNs. As in the previous contract, the wage scale for nurse clinicians is 12.18% above the staff RN scale, and for clinical nurse specialists it is 22.04% above the staff RN scale. These base wage changes are effective 9/28, visible in the 10/17 paycheck.
• Shift differentials on weekdays are increasing to $4/hour for evenings and $6 for nights. There is also a new weekend shift differential. For weekend day shifts the differential will be $4/hour, with $8/hour for evening shifts and $10/hour for night shifts. These changes are effective 10/12, visible in the 10/31 paycheck.
• Increases to on-call pay: Mandatory on-call for all units at JSUMC will be $10/hour. Voluntary on-call will be $10/hour on units with MOC, or $6/hour on units that don’t have MOC. These changes are effective 10/12, visible in the 10/31 paycheck.
• In June 2026 there will be a 3% across-the-board raise.

Contract Win: A Safer Workplace

We got management to agree to new health and safety language in our contract, including the following:

• Security wanding for weapons at all entrances within 90 days of ratification.
• A continuous security presence in a department where someone attempts to seriously injure or kill an employee (this is an issue that has actually come up, believe it or not).
• Management has pledged to get serious about flagging the charts of threatening patients. They also plan to move from wanding to stationary metal detectors at most entrances in time. Within 60 days of ratification, we will meet to discuss implementation of these additional security measures and any others we feel we need.

Other Contract Wins

Our new contract is in effect until October 2, 2028. Here are some other guarantees we won for this contract:

• Day 1 ESL (instead of PTO) for ED and urgent care visits
• Enhanced bereavement language, including miscarriage
• A longer voluntary on-call sign up period
• Student loan repayment program, contributing up to $300/month for undergraduate loans. This is separate/in addition to standard tuition reimbursement
• When the hospital cancels extra shifts, they will first offer the shift off to previously denied PTO requests
• Employees will have preference for the on-site childcare program before the general public

• Time limits on management’s right to issue disciplines, and language encouraging the use of the fair and just culture approach in disciplines
• Language protecting the 11-11 parking lot
• Language requiring discussions about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on our members
• The hospital will provide us with lists of submitted missed meal break forms and reeducate managers on paying people for all work time including missed meal breaks (don’t let them steal your money!)
• A pilot program for greater scheduling flexibility for the nurse educators
• Language reinforcing the accepted practice of a fair rotation for moving people off self-scheduled days and assigning a fair number of Monday and Friday shifts in each scheduling period
• After an extended leave (3 months or longer), your first day back will be protected, to be used for catching up on training and education before needing to take a patient assignment
• Integrating multiple policies and practices into the contract (including per diem, absenteeism and lateness, and tuition reimbursement) so they can’t be changed by management without first bargaining with the union

We fought off any significant givebacks! The new contract isn’t fully drafted yet, but you can still explore the actual contract language for yourself: reference the 2022-2025 contract, and then take a look at the full tentative agreement showing all changes agreed to in our negotiations.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email us at [email protected].