Kuakini nurses Striking nurses from Kuakini Medical Center voted overwhelmingly in favor of approving their new contract yesterday.
OK labor deal
Nurses have a new contract
after six weeks on strikeBy Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.comThe voting took place all day at the Laborers International Union headquarters on Palama Street.
Kerry Lineham, a negotiator for the Hawaii Nurses Association, said 191 of 204 eligible nurses voted. The union did not release the breakdown of the vote.
"We're happy that it's ratified and now comes the job of making sure it's enforced and safe staffing returns to Kuakini," Lineham said.
"I'm just relieved," said 30-year nurse, Elizabeth Gamiao, who voted earlier in the afternoon.
The six-week strike was the third in Gamiao's career.
"I was maybe more apprehensive about going out on strike because I've been through it before," she said.
Gamiao said this one was particularly difficult.
"Every time it gets worse. The last time they didn't use agency nurses," she said. "I think that's why (this strike) went on so long. As in any strike there's going to be some hard feelings. I just hope we can get on with" our work.
But Gamaio thinks that in some ways, it was good for managers to get first-hand experience of running the hospital without its nurses.
"The supervisors now know what it's like and maybe now will be more empathetic. They would never have learned that if they hadn't walked in our shoes," she said.
Major points in the settlement include a 20 percent salary increase over the three-year contract, strong language addressing the elimination of mandatory overtime and when the hospital will turn to an outside staffing agency to fill vacant positions. The deal also changes the hospital's plan to eliminate the 36/48 hour two-week work period. Nurse retirees will also get access to a medical plan.
"We're pleased that the nurses have ratified the contract," Kuakini spokeswoman Donda Spiker said.
The vote came after the union spent more than 20 hours on Wednesday and Thursday with hospital officials working out details for returning striking nurses to work.
Nurses will likely start returning by Friday but will first have to be trained on a new computer ordering system installed by the hospital just prior to the strike.
The dates of individual nurses' return will depend upon seniority. But the hospital has agreed that the earliest returning nurses may opt to share hours with nurses of lesser seniority who may not be scheduled to return to work immediately because the hospital consolidated some services and closed some nursing units during the strike.
Nurses who object to working with the remaining replacement nurses hired by the hospital during the strike may also request vacation or a leave of absence while any temporary nurses finish out their contracts.
The last of the replacement nurses should be finished Jan. 19, Spiker said.
The closure of floors and the consolidation of some units threatened to derail return to work negotiations this week. Kuakini announced it wanted to permanently close some areas in the hospital to combine patients from some units together.
During the return to work talks, the union agreed to allow co-location of some units for a month but did not agree to a permanent arrangement, said Sue Scheider, director of collective bargaining for the union.
In a letter later sent to the union, Kuakini put the nurses on notice of its plans to locate an oncology unit with a medical/surgical unit. But before the hospital could make the change, it would have to discuss its plans with the union, said Scheider.
The union plans to file a bad faith-bargaining charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the hospital for not bringing up the issue during contract negotiations and waiting until later to broach the subject, she said.
"They agreed to a temporary transition for one month initially but then somehow it morphed into a permanent choice," she said.
Scheider said the nurses have grave concerns about bringing certain units together. The Kuakini letter indicates it planned to combine cancer patients who have compromised immune systems with medical/surgical patients.
Nurses have asked Kuakini's doctors to weigh in on the matter.
Meanwhile at Queen's Medical Center, striking nurses are waiting to hear when they will vote on their proposed contract, according to a union negotiator.
"We don't have a date yet but do have a couple of informational meetings set up for Saturday and Sunday," said union negotiator Bill Richter.
Richter said the union is also still trying to secure a date for the return-to-work negotiations with Queen's.
"My understanding is that the agreement has to be completed prior to ratification," Richter said.
Kuakini Health System
Queen's Medical Center
Hawaii Nurses Association