Posted on: Wednesday, December 25, 2002
Queen's, striking nurses resume talks tomorrow
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Contract negotiations between striking nurses and the management of The Queen's Medical Center will resume tomorrow afternoon, more than a week after talks between the two sides broke down.
About 800 nurses at Queen's have been on strike since Dec. 3. They joined about 600 nurses at Kuakini and St. Francis-Liliha medical centers who walked off their jobs a day earlier.
No new talks are scheduled between nurses and management at Kuakini and St. Francis.
Bill Richter, negotiator for Queen's nurses, said the two sides are near agreement on wages but remain apart on the issues of retention and recruitment of trained nurses and mandatory overtime. Richter said the two sides also have not agreed on a benefits package, which includes retirement.
Negotiators for Queen's and the nurses last met Dec. 18. But talks broke down after the hospital refused to accept a new wage proposal offered by the nurses.
Hospital spokeswoman Lynn Kenton said last night that Queen's did not expect the new wage demand. She said the medical center's offer of a 21 percent wage hike over three years and other improved benefits would make Queen's nurses the highest paid in the state.
This month, 640 nurses at Kaiser voted to accept a contract that includes a pay increase of 21 percent over three years. Pay for a nurse with two years of experience at the hospital rises to $30.89 an hour, or $64,247 per year, said Sue Scheider of the Hawai'i Nurses Association. By the end of the contract, the same pay rate rises to $35.03 per hour, or $72,869 per year. There are additional increases for nurses with seven years' and 15 years' experience at the hospital.
At Kapi'olani Medical Center, 480 nurses have approved a similar three-year contract, with a 22 percent pay increase. The new hourly pay rate for a Kapi'olani nurse with two years of experience will be just more than $30 per hour. Additional 7 percent pay increases are included in the second and third years of the contract.
Nurses at both hospitals, however, said the contracts do not fully satisfy all their concerns about safe staffing levels and better retirement medical benefits.
Kenton said that mandatory overtime last year accounted for only one-tenth of 1 percent of all the overtime hours worked by Queen's nurses. But she said the hospital is "certainly willing to work to reduce that even further.
"As with every scheduled talk, Queen's has gone into it hopeful that an agreement would be met, and we certainly are going into this with more hopes that a final agreement will be reached," Kenton said.
Meanwhile, most of the striking nurses picketing at all three hospitals will be taking Christmas off. HNA spokesman Scott Foster said the nurses are required by law to "maintain a daily presence," but do not have to picket all day long.
He said Queen's nurses will gather at the hospital for caroling and prayer from 7 to 8:30 this morning.
