UNAP members approve five year contract with Rhode Island Hospital

ABC6 News

By: News Staff

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PROVIDENCE, R.I (WLNE) – Union members voted tonight and have approved a five year contract with Lifespan.

The deal includes increased wages and benefits for the 2,400 union nurses and healthcare professionals at Rhode Island and Hasbro Children’s Hospitals.

It also addressed staffing and resource concerns by creating a committee that will meet regularly to stay on top of those issues.

Last month when contract negotiations stalled the nurses went on strike for several days.

According to Ray Sullivan with UNAP, the following is the timeline of what led to the nurses strike, and where they are now:

  • "The contract for approximately 2,400 UNAP nurses, technologists, therapists and mental health workers at Rhode Island and Hasbro Children’s Hospitals expired June 30, but was extended until July 14. 

 

  • UNAP is pressing for a fair and competitive contract and for Lifespan to address chronic understaffing, high turnover and a fundamental lack of key resources for front line caregivers. Despite Lifespan’s claims to the contrary, these issues have been raised by UNAP at the bargaining table.

 

  • July 12: UNAP votes down a contract offer from Lifespan because it fails to address a number of patient safety and economic security concerns. 

 

  • July 13: UNAP issues a 10-day strike notice for a three-day action beginning July 23 at 3:00pm and ending July 26 at 3:00pm.

 

  • July 19th: Local 5098 members resoundingly reject a second, lesser contract offer from Lifespan and vote to move forward with the three-day strike. 

 

  • July 23: The federal mediator orders both sides to return to the bargaining table. Lifespan sets a deadline of 11:00am that morning for a deal to be reached. Offers are exchanged through the mediator and Lifespan fails to respond by its own 11:00am deadline, resulting in negotiations concluding for the day.

 

  • July 23: The strike begins at 3:00pm at Rhode Island and Hasbro Children’s Hospitals. Picketing commences outside the main campus on Dudley and Eddy Streets. 

 

  • July 26: The strike ends at 3:00pm and the Lifespan-orderd lockout begins. The lockout was initiated at the insistence of Huffmaster, an out-of-state company that contracted with Lifespan to provide temporary workers during the strike at a cost of approximately $11 million. 

 

  • July 27: The lockout ends at 3:00pm and many UNAP members returns to work. Lifespan delays the return of an undeterminable number of workers after the lockout.

 

  • August 2: UNAP members overwhelmingly vote "no confidence" in Lifespan CEO Timothy Babineau and Rhode Island Hospital President Margaret Van Bree. The union also votes to authorize members of its’ bargaining team to issue a 10-day strike notice, in the event that negotiations with Lifespan again break down. A second vote by the membership would have to occur before moving forward with a strike.

 

  • August 8: UNAP leaders and Lifespan management return to the bargaining table. No agreement is reached.

 

  • August 9: UNAP files unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Rhode Island Hospital for implementing unilateral changes to a number of workplace conditions that are subject to collective bargaining. Lifespan initiated illegal call-off procedures when it prevented a number of union members from returning to work immediately after the lockout ended on July 27, at 3:00pm. Additionally, the hospital denied at least one vacation request of a Local 5098 bargaining team member who has been an outspoken critic of Lifespan’s policies. A similar request for vacation was approved for at least one other employee who has not been part of the negotiating process. 

 

  • August 15: Contract negotiations resume, no deal is reached. 

 

  • August 17: UNAP and Lifespan reach a tentative agreement for a new, five year contract. Local 5098 members to meet and consider the proposal on August 22.

 

  • August 22: UNAP Local 5098 members meet and vote to approve a new, five-year contract with Rhode Island Hospital."

© WLNE-TV 2018

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