The AHS plan: NO RAISES, NO STAFFING. TAKEAWAYS & LAYOFFS
We’re fighting for a fair contract. AHS is currently running a $4.5 million operating deficit and is projecting a cash shortfall of almost $300 million. SEIU Local 1021, CNA, and the other AHS unions are demanding that the Alameda County Board of Supervisors take over AHS. Otherwise, our lives will be in the hands of a bunch of unelected volunteers on the Board of Trustees and it will mean cuts, understaffing, and layoffs. We need to put public health in public hands.
Cutting pay & benefits
Currently members in the PPO plan pay no monthly costs. AHS wants to make us pay 10% for the PPO plan that is now free, starting in January.
No raises.
Cut holiday pay for 10 and 12 hour employees, so no one would get more than 8 hours of holiday pay, and 10 or 12 hour employees would have to use PTO to cover their holidays.
Making it harder for nurses to get missed meal period overtime. (Art 6)
Delete the 2 days of emergency PTO. Art 11 ¶154
The GU & San Leandro chapters participate in the SEIU Joint Education Fund. AHS contributes to the fund, which offers lots of classes, tuition, career counseling and more for our members to be able to move up in their careers and get their continuing education. The Fund just expanded benefits to our SAN members. AHS wants to take it away entirely. (Sec 14.2 ¶205)
Delete rollover of unused ed leave hours from RN MOU.
Delete the right to buy long-term disability with vacation sellback (RN 18.3).
AHS unilaterally took ¶299 B & C out of the 2017 GU MOU, which provided higher shift differentials for classifications in nursing departments.
Delete temporary voluntary reduction of workweek and voluntary time off from Article 7—GU ¶73-79.
Delete industrial sick leave supplement to provide support for members who are hurt at work for an extended period of time. ¶168-172
Cutting protections/giving the bosses more control and us fewer rights
Remove all safe staffing and Title 22 language from the contract. Allow management to make unilateral changes to staffing without meeting with the union first.
Delete contractual caseload levels for social workers (Article 35)
They want to make it easier to fire people. No more suspensions. Directly from reminder 2 to termination. Allow AHS to bypass reminder 1 for behavior you “should have known was unsatisfactory…” Allow AHS to mix performance, attendance, and conduct discipline—now each type of infraction needs to be its own disciplinary track. Remove our right to have old discipline removed from our personnel files.
Allow AHS discretion to change schedules from 8-10-12 hour shifts.
Delete modified duty from the contract.
Allow AHS to cancel people up to the minute before their shift. (Current contract requires two hours’ notice.)
Delete seniority rights for cancellations of SANs (RN).
AHS unilaterally removed PIPs from ¶412 of the GU MOU.
AHS has the right to approve LOAs
Require 6 weeks’ notice to schedule medical appointments.
Delete flex schedule for PA/NPs (6.16)
Make it harder for nurses to get major holidays off
Delete extra unpaid leave RN 8.20.
Delete leave for special project, leave for exams, leave for selection or transfer, union leave, ed leave for literacy training.
Delete lactation breaks and lactation spaces for RNs. (RN 6.1.1)
Limiting shift trading. (RN 6.11.3)
Cutting jobs
MAKE LAYOFFS EASIER.
Allow involuntary daily cancellations of FTE employees.
Allow involuntary cancellations of SANs and FTE extra shifts before travelers
Increase AHS rights to lay off members outside of seniority order
Delete recall rights for laid off employees
Delete every weekend benefitted positions (6.13 RN, GU Side Letter #4 for JGPH)
Cutting union rights
Take away our right to honor another union’s picket line (sympathy strike rights).
Limit scope of grievances to one topic.
Cap the number of shop stewards we can have.
Delete union leave (GU Article 9, ¶116) from GU but not RN.
SEIU Proposals Rejected by AHS
AHS refused to sign our contracts in 2017, then changed a bunch of language. Rather than clean up the old contract first, AHS wants to re-write our entire contract from scratch.
AHS HAS REJECTED OR IGNORED:
Safe staffing & patient care
Copy Appendix D staffing matrix from RN to GU MOU. (AHS wants to delete entirely.)
Staff John George according to the state-mandated plan of correction to address unsafe staffing
Safety—ensure adequate ventilation in all facilities, protect staff from toxic chemicals.
Stop violating state law by discharging homeless patients in nothing but gowns and socks.
Ensure charge nurse/team leader is out of the count. (RN)
Break relief language in Article 5 to apply to JGPP and Fairmont
Create a dedicated medical/psychiatric unit at Fairmont.
Racial justice impact report to analyze structural racism at AHS.
Create child care facility.
AHS to partner with SEIU to promote local career pipelines to hire from the community
Pay & Benefits
Raises to keep pace with inflation.
NO LAYOFFS.
Internal pay equities—align pay rates where groups in comparable classifications get paid different amounts.
In-lieu of benefits pay and salary steps for SANs
Add RN bargaining unit to the Joint Employer Education Fund, so that GU & SLH employees can use the fund to become nurses.
Ensure AHS does not try to cut our dependents health benefits again.
Fix PTO accrual so that part-time staff progress in PTO accruals at same rate as full-time.
Get training pay for hours rather than full shift only.
Improve protection for payroll errors.
Protecting our rights
Every other weekend off guaranteed. (GU/SLH)
Right to grieve return from LOA.
Expand contract protections for modified duty to include non-workplace injuries.
Allow part-time RNs who work in excess of their FTE to increase their FTE.
Attempts to get SLH & GU contracts aligned to move towards equity that AHS rejected:
Members in the same classification in GU and SLH get paid different rates, with no logic to the differences. We proposed to pay workers the same for the classification, using whichever rate was higher. AHS said no.
The GU contract has strong workplace safety provisions. The current SLH contract has none, and has significant safety problems, particularly related to having staff appropriate and trained to handle violent or unstable patients. AHS rejected. They prefer to continue the current informal practice of paging “any available man” to help.
GU and RN contracts currently do not allow involuntary daily cancellations (TLO). Some SLH members get cancelled a lot. AHS wants shift cancellations/TLO for everyone.
GU participates in the ACERA pension plan. SLH has a worse pension.
The GU contract provides for 4-16 weeks of severance pay for laid off employees. San Leandro only has 2-6 weeks of severance pay. AHS rejected providing equal severance pay to laid off SLH workers.
The GU contract has the Workforce Planning Committee and other protections around layoffs. San Leandro doesn’t. AHS wants to make it worse for everyone.
GU provides paid holidays separate from the PTO bank. SLH ends with net fewer paid days off. AHS wants to keep it that day.
The GU contract allows for the temporary voluntary reduction of hours. AHS rejected extended that to SLH.
Important Calendar Events
Week of July 6, 2020
• Friday, July 10 Fairmont / JPG
Membership update.
Basketball court near cafeteria,
2pm to 7 pm
Week of July 13, 2020
• Monday, July 13—virtual people’s AHS town hall. RSVP on facebook.
• Tuesday, July 14—SLH bargaining
• Wednesday, July 15—all team caucus
• Friday, July 17 San Antonio park
Membership meeting
16th & Foothill Blvd, 2pm to 7 pm
Week of July 20, 2020
• Tuesday, July 21—RN bargaining
• Wednesday, July 22—GU bargaining
• Friday, July 24
San Leandro Hospital Membership meeting. Patio area back of the building, 2pm to 7pm