St. Francis, nurses union resume bargaining
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Working against the clock to avert a strike this morning, nurses and administrators from St. Francis Medical Center were back at the negotiating table late last night and expected to continue talking into today.
At Kuakini Medical Center, where a strike could also come as early as today, nurses waited while hospital officials considered making another offer to the union.
The St. Francis negotiating session, which began last night, was the latest in a series of high-pressure talks between the Hawai'i Nurses Association and the five major hospitals on O'ahu.
Nurses at The Queen's Medical Center will vote today on a contract presented by administrators. Tentative agreements have been reached with Kaiser and Kapi'olani medical centers.
According to a nurses association spokesman, nurses yesterday rejected a Kuakini contract that did not significantly address retiree medical benefits.
Queen's nurses, meanwhile, are voting this morning on a contract proposal that contains some of the salary increases and retirement benefits the nurses sought, but no measures that nurses had requested to improve staffing and decrease overtime.
"At this point, we're not making a recommendation one way or the other," said Caroldean Kahue, chief negotiator for nurses at Queen's. "I think now we're going to let the nurses decide if this is something they can live with. It is totally up to them."
Vote tallies from Queen's are expected by about 7 p.m. today. If nurses vote against the contract, they could go on strike at 7 a.m. tomorrow.
Several Queen's nurses were at the union offices yesterday painting signs, just in case.
"We just don't know," said Mary Hackney, an operating room nurse and surgical assistant. "Some of them will vote for it. They offered a very generous wage increase."
Queen's officials gave seminars at the hospital yesterday to acquaint the nurses not directly involved in the negotiations with the terms of the contract.
Gail Tiwanak, Queen's vice president of Marketing and Communications, said nurses' salaries will increase annually during the three years covered by the contract.
A nurse with two years' experience would make $35.66 per hour by the third year of the contract, a 22.5 percent increase over the $29.11 a two-year nurse makes now.
Nurses who worked at Queen's for 15 years or more would make $38.66 per hour beginning Dec. 1, 2004, a 28 percent increase over the $30.11 they make now.
However, experienced nurses moving to Queen's from other hospitals will come in at the same salary rate as a nurse who is two years out of college, Tiwanak said
Hackney said that is where the problem arises. As baby-boomer nurses, now in their 40s and 50s, move toward retirement, the number of experienced nurses diminishes. Nursing schools, she said, are not producing enough graduates to replace the boomers.
Queen's will not be able to compete against other hospitals to attract experienced nurses from the smaller, post-boomer pool, she said. As a consequence, patient care will suffer.
The nurses also oppose a provision in the proposed contract that requires nurses who frequently call in sick for short periods during the year to eventually start drawing from their vacation days instead of sick-leave days.
The nurses said that if they worked less overtime, they would not become sick as often. Queen's officials said staffing at the hospital meets or exceeds national standards, and nurses work less overtime than the national average.
Queen's officials said they are planning to continue normal operations if a strike is called, and are bringing in nurses from a company that supplies employees willing to cross a picket line.
St. Francis has said it cannot afford to bring in outside nurses, and will have to suspend some of its services in the event of a strike.
The main medical center on Liliha Street stopped admitting patients last week and doctors were asked to discharge patients who could safely return home. Outpatient surgeries were canceled beginning during the weekend, and all inpatient surgeries, beginning today, were canceled.
Ambulance drivers have been instructed not to take patients to the St. Francis emergency room on Liliha. Walk-in patients will be stabilized and then sent to other hospitals.
Temporary layoffs of nonunion workers were likely as patient populations dropped, St. Francis spokeswoman Maggie Jarrett said.
St. Francis Medical Center West nurses are covered by a separate bargaining agreement, so that facility will continue normal services if a strike is called, Jarrett said.
Kuakini spokeswoman Donda Spiker said Kuakini will bring in supplemental nurses, but plans to phase them in as the hospital determines how many patients scheduled to come in for treatment will cancel. Most patients were called and told that they can keep their appointments, if they chose to do so.
Kapi'olani and Kaiser nurses will vote later in the week on whether to accept contracts proposed by those hospitals. The union is recommending both groups of nurses to vote to accept.
Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2430.
