UNM Hospital and some SRMC health care workers to receive raises

The University of New Mexico Hospital announced wage increases on Aug. 9 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.

“Our teams work incredibly hard on behalf of our patients to provide high-quality, safe, equitable health care,” said Kate Becker, CEO of UNM Hospital. “I am so proud we are able to offer this wage increase. No amount of money can truly express how appreciative we are, but I hope our teams know how much we value their contributions to make our state healthier and safer.”

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 those employees at SRMC that United Health Professionals NM division of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) seeks to represent.

The UNMH release says that UNM Hospital administration provided the employees that AFT seeks to represent with the same raise provided to other UNM Hospital employees in January and February.

“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 the release.

“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.

Union organizer Adrienne Enghouse, a former nurse at SRMC, said the hospital issued false information about who PRNs are and why they should not be included in a collective bargaining agreement.

“PRNs are nurses, radiation techs, respiratory therapists and other health professionals who work in all departments in the hospital,” Enghouse said. “They work as needed and don’t have set hours; many have worked in this capacity in the hospital for years. They do the same work as the regular staff and should get the same wages and benefits — and the right to be a member of the union — as the regular staff.”

A press release from UHPNM said PRNs are different from traveling nurses.

“For the hospital to say PRNs have no commitment to our community is a blatant lie. They live in our neighborhoods, pay taxes here and send their children to the same schools as everyone else,” Enghouse said.

UHPNM said PRNs are not freelance employees, they have a direct and ongoing employment relationship with SRMC and they should be included in the union’s membership and part of the eventual collective bargaining agreement. PRNs are not temporary employees who have short-term, limited-duration contracts, sometimes with guaranteed hours. PRNs are permanent employees with an extended employment relationship and contingent work hours and should be included in the eventual collective bargaining agreement.

“To say it’s wholly unfair to include them in a contract is ridiculous. SRMC is spending twice the money to hire fly-in travel nurses on short-term, 13-week contracts but refuse to treat PRNs with the respect they deserve,” Enghouse said. “This is a slap in the face to every PRN who has dedicated time, energy and care to our hospital’s patients.”

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,” 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.”