The Hawaii Nurses Association and Hawaii's five largest hospitals have begun negotiations over contracts affecting more than 2,500 nurses. Nurses and hospitals
begin talks over contractsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comCurrent three-year contracts expire Nov. 30 in the midst of a critical nursing shortage in Hawaii and across the nation.
"We expect that it is going to be quite contentious," Sue Scheider, collective bargaining organization director for the Hawaii Nurses Association, said today of the contract talks.
"Proposals on our side are ambitious and would require a lot of movement from the employer. We have to wait and see," she said. "We haven't gotten their proposals yet to see if they are ready to rise to the occasion to make the investment in nursing and nurses that they need to."
Fred Tokoro, Hawaii Employers Council negotiator for the hospitals, was in negotiations this morning and could not be reached for comment.
Negotiations opened yesterday at The Queen's Medical Center and Kapiolani Medical Center, and today at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. They will begin Friday at Kuakini Medical Center and Oct. 31 at St. Francis Medical Center-Liliha.
HNA's three major issues are safe patient care, retention of nurses and professionalism.
Within those categories, the nurses are seeking appropriate staffing levels, mandatory overtime, wage increases, safe workplaces, retiree health insurance, recognition for additional responsibilities and other improvements.
A huge problem unique to Hawaii is a "job rate" for nurses at hospitals, Scheider said.
What it means is the hospitals set a job wage rate for nurses, and after the nurse attains that rate, there are no increases despite additional experience and expertise, she said.
"We're trying to build in the professional concept of wage progression that reflects the additional value an experienced nurse brings to the job," she said.
Another thing unique to Hawaii is that there are no weekend differentials in salary, Scheider said.
Lack of health insurance for retirees is another big problem, particularly at Kaiser, which offers it to nurses on the mainland, she said.
The HNA recognizes difficulties that hospitals are having because of because of low Medicare, Medicaid and other insurance reimbursements, she said.
"But especially in a work shortage environment, this doesn't let them off the hook for paying comparable salaries for the national market," she said.
Comparable salaries and benefits are essential to attract nurses to Hawaii, Scheider said.
Hawaii Nurses Association