SRMC union says it accepts wage increase, demands to bargain with UNM hospital leadership

On Aug. 9, The University of New Mexico Hospital announced wage increases for all of its employees who work at the campus on Lomas Boulevard, the hospital’s clinics and for many of the employees who work at UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center – A Campus of UNM Hospital (SRMC).

According to a release, UNM Hospital is able to provide a 3% general wage increase because of newly increased Medicaid reimbursement. UNM Hospital thanked the New Mexico Health Care Authority for support in obtaining this increased reimbursement. This is the second wage increase for UNM Hospital health care workers in the last eight months.

But a group of employees did not receive raises this time.

The wage increase went into effect for all non-union employees as of Aug. 4 after UNM Hospital administration successfully negotiated a 3% increase with the following labor unions:

• National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees District 1199NM Licensed & Technical Staff.

• National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees District 1199NM Support Staff Communications Workers of America (CWA).

• Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA).

• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) working at SRMC.

However, UNM Hospital said it will not be able to provide a wage increase to 200 employees at SRMC that United Health Professionals NM division of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) seeks to represent.

UNMH says that UNM Hospital administration provided the UHPNM employees that AFT seeks to represent with the same raise provided to other UNM Hospital employees in January and February. But those employees were left out of this round of raises.

“It was important to UNM Hospital’s administration to equally support all health care workers at all UNM Hospital campuses. However, AFT’s leadership filed a Prohibited Practice Complaint with the state’s labor board alleging the hospital violated state law when it gave the same raise to the workers AFT seeks to represent that the hospital gave to all other workers,” according to a release from UNMH.

“The hospital disagrees with AFT’s position. Nonetheless, the hospital will respect AFT’s position that this new wage increase should not be provided to its membership absent a bargained-for agreement. That is the demand by AFT’s leadership. The public should know that UNM Hospital’s administration has asked AFT’s leadership to come to the negotiation table at least four separate times in the last year to bargain over terms and conditions of employment and wages for SRMC’s regular employees, but they have thus far refused. AFT’s continued refusal to bargain with UNM Hospital over wages for SRMC’s regular employees, combined with AFT’s position that UNM Hospital cannot unilaterally raise the wages of its regular employees, effectively handcuffs UNM Hospital into being unable to implement wage increases for these employees as it did in February.”

UNMH said the sticking point in ongoing negotiations with AFT involves AFT wanting to include PRN employees into their membership. PRN is Latin for “pro re nata” which translates to “as the need arises.”

PRN employees are freelance, temporary employees and are not regular employees of the hospital.

“Including PRN employees in the same union as the employees who work shift after shift, year after year, and have demonstrated a commitment to our community is wholly unfair to the hospital’s regular employees,” the release said. “While PRN employees are important to help any hospital fill critical gaps, they are not obligated to work, do not have set schedules, and may work at other hospitals filling their gaps. AFT leadership has disagreed with this viewpoint and has refused to meet with UNM Hospital’s negotiators.

The United Health Professionals of New Mexico disagrees.

UHPNM held a press conference on Aug. 19 outside of the hospital to discuss its decision about the wage increase offered to all UNMH employees except those who are unionized at SRMC.

UHPNM attorney Shane Youtz said the union has offered a memorandum of agreement to the hospital that would give the UHPNM workers the same 3% wage increase as the hospital system provided its other employees earlier this month. Youtz said at the press conference it would accept the 3% wage increase now even though UNM SRMC continues to refuse to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.

The union and the hospital still must meet at the bargaining table to further discuss wage and other issues, including ways to improve patient and worker conditions.

According to UHPNM, the union was formed more than two years ago, but instead of bargaining a first contract, the hospital “has focused its energy on a myriad of unnecessary and anti-worker legal challenges, attempting to overturn multiple orders to bargain issued by the New Mexico State Labor Board. Instead of working with employees to improve conditions, it has done things such as sweep the hospital’s dismal Medicare rating on quality under the rug.”

“The union is agreeing to take the 3% raise to get things moving. The nurses and other health professionals work just as hard as all those in UNM’s other facilities, and they deserve a raise as well and deserve a partner at the bargaining table to negotiate patient care improvements,” Youtz said. “Just like it has with its other unions, UNM SRMC still needs to meet us at the bargaining table to reach binding agreements on wages and other patient and healing issues. This is a publicly funded hospital that has been abusing, overspending and wasting taxpayer money on legal challenges to a legally formed union. It is demonstrating highly ineffective leadership and must come to the table to work with employees on providing solutions to improve patient care.”

UNMH said it has reached bargaining agreements with all other unions that represent hospital employees, and the hospital is interested in reaching an agreement with AFT.

“Instead of coming to the table, AFT leaders have launched a campaign of misinformation, false claims and personal attacks to mislead the public into believing that SRMC is somehow unsafe or employee morale is low,” UNMH said. “Hospital data proves those claims are far from the truth. Despite this, AFT leadership continues to expend its resources to distract from the central issue — which is that the administration stands ready to bargain in good faith regarding the terms and conditions of employment and wages of the regular employees who work at SRMC. However, AFT leadership’s tactics continue to impede progress toward reaching this goal.”

UHPNM, again, disagreed.

“When we raise issues with the hospital, we have been very careful to speak the truth. When we say morale is low and patient care is often unsafe because of poor staffing levels and other inferior conditions, we know what we’re talking about,” Union Organizer and former SRMC nurse Adrienne Enghouse said. “We’re on the floors every day and are working in the environment that we desperately want improved. That’s why we want a union and a collective bargaining agreement — to be able to work collaboratively with hospital management to raise the quality of care that has been called out by two national ratings organizations.”

Samantha Hines, an emergency nurse at SRMC, said she wants to get negotiations started right away to find ways to improve patient and healing conditions.

“Patient conditions are worker conditions. When there are an appropriate number of nurses, say, in the emergency department or on the medical-surgical floors, then patients get the quality of care they need. Providing a decent wage is one of many ways to make that happen,” Hines said. “I've worked for Sandoval Regional for 3 1/2 years. I love working here. I love working with the patients. I love the work I do. What I don't love is the harassment and discrimination that we're now facing due to them not giving us our raises that we have earned. We work really hard every day when we're here and we have earned that 3% raise, if not more. They need to sit down with my union, and we need a contract. It's not fair to us. We are the front-line workers. We know exactly what is going on in this hospital. We are the ones that take care of you and your family. We want this hospital to be better. I think it's in the best interest of our community for SRMC to sit down and bargain with my union. They're hurting the community. They're hurting the employees while they sit up there and collect their checks I would like to collect.”