County nurses pact seen as symbolic
Huge costs for retiree health insurance are expected to threaten Erie County finances in the future, but the recent contract agreement with county nurses may be the first signs of progress toward lowering those expenses, according to details released Tuesday.
The county sees the nurses agreement reached Dec. 23 as both financially and symbolically important, with county officials describing it as “setting the table” for negotiations with the bulk of its public employee work force.
“Unless we deal with retiree health, there will never be a contract signed by this administration,” County Executive Chris Collins said. “Now, I believe, other unions know I’m serious.”
But each of the parties in the talks walked away with something they wanted.
For nurses at Erie County Medical Center, the Erie County Home and the Health Department, the agreement gives them their first negotiated salary increases since 2005 and makes their pay competitive with colleagues at other hospitals.
“The nurses wanted a contract with fair compensation that was closer to what other nurses receive. No one wants to see concessions, but there was a recognition that something had to be done on retiree health,” said Mark Genovese, spokesman for the New York State Nurses Association.
Provisions of the new contract include:
• New nurses will no longer receive fully paid health insurance in retirement. Current nurses will pay 50 percent of their health costs at retirement, although nurses who retire within the next five years are exempted from this provision.
• New nurses will pay 15 percent toward health insurance costs, while current nurses will pay 15 percent of future increases in health costs.
• Nurses agreed to give up two paid holidays — Columbus Day and Election Day — as well as shorter work hours during the summer. New nurses also will receive a 30-minute, instead of a one-hour, paid lunch.
• Nurses affiliated with ECMC received retroactive payments of $2,000 for both 2006 and 2007, as well as 4 percent salary increases for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Nurses in the Health Department get an immediate 10 percent increase in salary, as well as 3 percent increases in each of the next three years.
• Other provisions include higher pay for hospital nurses who further their education in college and for those who agree to mentor less-experienced nurses in the hospital.
At ECMC, where most of the nurses work, the contract will help retain experienced nurses and, more importantly, start to fundamentally reorganize employee benefit costs to remain viable, officials say.
“The world changed six months ago, with the downturn in the economy and then the state budget cuts. There is no more bluffing. If we don’t change, we will not survive,” said Jody Lomeo, the medical center’s interim chief executive officer
He and others also portrayed the agreement as a key step forward in efforts to merge ECMC and Kaleida Health.
A state commission ordered ECMC and Kaleida to form a unified, nonpublic governance structure that included the University at Buffalo. The parent organization recently named itself Great Lakes Health.
But in an arrangement completed in June, the hospitals will remain separate for now while working toward the consolidation of key services. Rising employee benefit costs at ECMC pose a major stumbling block to investing in new programs at the medical center or achieving a full merger, officials have said.
“If we don’t deal with retiree health, the merger won’t happen,” Collins said. “Kaleida Health won’t take on that kind of open-ended liability.”
The Western Region District of the NYSNA has about 720 members at ECMC; 60 at the Erie County Home, the nursing home affiliated with the medical center; and 47 at the Health Department. The county is responsible for negotiating its contracts, but medical center officials played a key role in bargaining because the majority of the nurses work at ECMC and its nursing home in Alden.
Lomeo praised the nurses, saying the contract reflects an understanding of economic realities and an acknowledgment by the hospital of the integral role the nurses play.
“Nursing is the backbone of the care we deliver. If we don’t stabilize it, nothing Great Lakes Health wants to do will get done,” he said.
The county still must negotiate contracts with the bulk of its work force represented by Local 815, Civil Service Employees Association, and Local 1085, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Collins, who estimated the county’s future retiree health costs at $750 million over 10 years, said the contract “sets the table” for talks with CSEA and AFSCME.
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