honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, January 9, 2003

Queen's deal announced

 •  Patients likely to pay more for fewer services
 •  St. Francis, nurses far from reaching deal

By Robbie Dingeman and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers

An all-night bargaining session produced a tentative agreement yesterday between the union for striking nurses and The Queen's Medical Center, but some nurses said that they were so unhappy with a key provision of the proposed contract that they will vote against it.

Nurses Sheri Kearns, left, Janet Coghill, Karen Boyle and Denise Keomalu embraced after a tentative deal was announced yesterday at The Queen's Medical Center.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

For five weeks, Queen's nurses have carried picket signs condemning the management-backed provision referred to as "PTO" for paid time off, a system that combines vacation and sick leave in an attempt to reduce unscheduled absences.

Nurse Karen Boyle, who walked the picket line without a paycheck during the holidays, started crying when she talked about accepting paid time off. Boyle, an 11-year Queen's employee who works in the psychiatric unit, said she feels frustrated by the compromise.

"We're at the exact same spot on PTO as when we left," Boyle said. She said many nurses get sick or injured on the job, and she fears that nurses will end up using most of their vacation time to cover sick days under the proposed system.

The Queen's agreement was the second in as many days. On Tuesday, negotiators for striking nurses at Kuakini Medical Center reached a tentative agreement with the hospital. Their ratification vote will be tomorrow.

That leaves only St. Francis Medical Center without an agreement with its striking nurses.

Status of disputes at local hospitals

The Queen's Medical Center

• 21 percent raise over three years under tentative agreement reached yesterday. Covers 820 nurses. Ratification vote expected to be close because of management demand to combine sick leave and vacation into a single time-off pool.

Kuakini Medical Center

• 20 percent raise over three years under tentative agreement reached Tuesday. Covers 220 nurses. Ratification vote to come. Maximum shift reduced from 16 to 14 hours.

Kapi'olani Medical Center

• 22 percent raise over three years under contract ratified Dec. 4. Covers 480 nurses. Deal averted strike.

Kaiser Medical Center

• 21 percent raise over three years under contract ratified Dec. 7. Covers 640 nurses. Deal averted strike.

St. Francis Medical Center

• 340 nurses have been on strike since Dec. 2. No talks scheduled.

Source: Advertiser news files

Negotiators for Queen's and its nurses reached the tentative agreement about 6:45 a.m. yesterday. No date has been set for a ratification vote, although negotiators said it will likely be held within seven days.

Queen's officials would not comment on details of the agreement, but said they were happy one was reached.

"We ... look forward to the return of our nurses to again be part of our longstanding reputation of providing superior patient care," Arthur A. Ushijima, Queen's president and chief executive officer, said in a written statement.

The union's collective bargaining director, Sue Scheider, said a core of Queen's nurses opposed to the paid-time-off proposal could make it a close vote on ratification of the negotiated agreement.

Queen's spent an estimated $1 million a week for replacement nurses who arrived from the Mainland after the strike began Dec. 3. Throughout the strike, Queen's doctors and management said patient care has not suffered — despite the absence of 800 striking nurses — because staffing was kept at the same level by the imported nurses.

"There are a lot of hurt feelings with Queen's and the way we were treated," said nurse Sandra Teele, who said that after 13 years at Queen's she will probably look for a job elsewhere. "There is going to be a long healing process even if we settle."

Each hospital negotiates separately with the Hawai'i Nurses' Association and has different salary schedules. Nurses on strike at the three hospitals currently earn from $20.55 an hour up to $38.86 an hour.

Nurses at Kuakini, where pay ranges from $20.55 an hour to $34.84 an hour, would receive a 20 percent pay increase over three years: 7 percent the first year; 6.25 percent the second and 6.75 percent the third, negotiators said.

That would raise annual salaries at Kuakini to between $42,744 and $86,965 a year before overtime.

Under the terms of the tentative agreement at Queen's, the nurses will get a 21 percent wage increase over the three-year contract — 8 percent the first year, 6 percent the second and 7 percent in the third year. Nurses with 10 years' experience at Queen's currently earn about $30.11 an hour, or $62,629 a year without overtime. The increase would push the average pay for them to $75,781.

Hospital officials also agreed to restrict mandatory overtime and must use temporary nurses before forcing Queen's nurses to work longer.

The PTO issue had been a sticking point that fueled the strike and continued to anger the 800 nurses since they walked off the job Dec. 3.

Bill Richter, a Queen's nurse and union negotiator, said yesterday at a press conference that the tentative agreement would not have been possible if the union did not compromise on paid time off.

"PTO was accepted with some modifications," Richter said. "There were some modifications we wouldn't have liked, but they were sufficient enough to make it palatable."

Under the Queen's proposal, the 12 days of annual sick leave that nurses now have will be split into five additional days for vacation and seven days that go into an extended sick leave bank that can be tapped for longer illnesses. For brief illnesses, nurses will have to use vacation days.

Nurses who use no sick leave in a year would receive five additional days of vacation, and nurses who call in sick fewer than five days a year would also end up with additional time off.

Richter acknowledged that many nurses will not accept the paid time off provision no matter how it is modified and that its inclusion could prompt a rejection of the tentative agreement.

"I'm certainly not ruling that out," he said. "I think it will be a close vote."

Nurses will continue to walk the picket lines until a contract is signed.

On the picket line outside Queen's, nurses began hearing about the agreement not long after it was reached. Some said they were disappointed that negotiations had not eliminated paid time off.

"I'm real upset about it," said nurse Gene Hall, who sat in on part of the negotiations.

"The negotiators kept saying they were going to leave PTO in the contract and we said no, don't do that, that's what the strike was all about," he said. "I'm voting no, and I'm telling everyone I can to vote no."

Nurse Kevin Matsumoto agreed.

"We have been out here going on six weeks with that on the table," he said. "It's like we were out here for nothing."