St. Francis talks break down
By Curtis Lum, Robbie Dingeman and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers
Talks between striking nurses and St. Francis Medical Center broke off last night after what one negotiator described as "an exercise in futility."
Negotiators for the Hawai'i Nurses' Association and St. Francis met with a federal mediator for about 12 hours yesterday, the first time the two sides had gotten together since about 400 registered nurses went on strike Dec. 2.
But at about 9:15 last night, the talks were called off after no progress had been made. No new negotiations have been scheduled.
"We did not accomplish anything," said HNA negotiator Claudine Tomasa. "The employer reneged on their proposal. They went backward, so the nurses were quite upset."
The breakdown in talks left nearly 1,400 nurses on strike at three Honolulu hospitals.
St. Francis had offered the nurses a one-year contract that called for a 4 percent pay raise. But the nurses countered with a three-year deal with wage increases of 4, 7 and 8 percent.
The nurses also objected to the hospital's plan to eliminate nine care-management nursing positions, Tomasa said.
To save the positions, St. Francis came back with a one-year proposal and a 2 percent increase. St. Francis spokeswoman Maggie Jarrett said the three-year proposal was "outside our financial means."
Jarrett said the hospital is financially strapped because 80 percent of its patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, which means lower reimbursements.
"St. Francis modified its one-year contract proposal within our cost parameters and the HNA returned with a three-year contract proposal, and we're unable to meet that request," Jarrett said.
Tomasa said the nurses aren't buying the hospital's claim of financial hardship. She said St. Francis has flown in 29 replacement nurses, put them up in hotels and paid them $90 an hour since the strike began.
But Jarrett said the replacement nurses have enabled St. Francis to resume only limited surgeries and admissions.
Tomasa said she fears that as the strike drags on, many nurses at St. Francis will decide not to return. She said 60 striking nurses already have found other jobs.
"The greatest concern is when we do settle, I don't think (St. Francis) will have the work force there, especially in the speciality areas," Tomasa said.
Yesterday's talks began after negotiators for The Queen's Medical Center and its 800 striking nurses concluded an 18-hour session without a settlement but with indications of progress toward ending their strike.
Negotiators for Kuakini and its 200 striking nurses are scheduled to meet Monday, their first face-to-face meeting since Dec. 19.
At Queen's, negotiators for nurses yesterday said they were optimistic that hospital management will reconsider a settlement package. In a written statement, the hospital called the progress "positive movement."
Caroldean Kahue, a Hawai'i Nurses' Association labor relations specialist, said both sides made compromises during the lengthy talks, which ended at 4 a.m.
"There was some movement on both sides," Kahue said.
"l think both parties went into these negotiations with the intent of trying to work through our differences."
But Kahue said the proposed package includes three unsettled issues that have vexed negotiations since the nurses at Queen's walked out Dec. 3: mandatory overtime, retirement benefits and paid time off.
The hospital also noted those points, adding that the distribution of a 21 percent wage increase also needs to be settled.
"By the end of the 18-hour session, there began to be relatively little change in the language of the counterproposals and we felt it would be better to end the session with the positive movement seen on both sides earlier in the evening," said Dan Jessop, chief operating officer and executive vice president for Queen's.
No further negotiations are scheduled.
Before the Queen's nurses offered their proposed settlement at about 2:30 a.m., the hospital had rejected a proposal that would have allowed nurses to be eligible for retirement medical benefit after 10 years of service, Kahue said.
The hospital had also rejected a mandatory overtime proposal. The proposal would have ensured that other resources, such as temporary agency nurses, would be exhausted before Queen's nurses would have to work beyond their 12-hour shifts, Kahue said.
But the nurses gave ground on their issue of paid time off, or "PTO" as it's often called. "We were willing to compromise," she said.
PTO has been a sticking point for weeks. Queen's officials want to institute a program that combines sick, holiday and vacation plans in a package that would reward nurses for not using sick days.
