Hello,
We began the fifth day of bargaining by observing amoment of silence in honor of the tragedy that occurred in Minnesota over the weekend.
Two nurses then shared stories about staffing challenges. As Chief Nursing Officer, I understand these issues. I review dashboards andround regularly to hear your feedback. I would like to see ASL and MNA focus onsolutions that are responsible, sustainable and fair to all.
MNA’s economic proposal – which we received just last week – would result in a 138% increase, which is nearly $57 million in newexpenses over three years. That is entirely unrealistic for a hospital confronting ongoing financial challenges.
Our counter proposal provides pay increases, rewards nurses who commit to working a higher FTE, complies with new state law on earned sick time, and aligns benefits across the full Aspirus system.
Bargaining is tough and sometimes requires hard discussions and hard decisions. Saying ‘no’ to the other party’s proposal is not bad faith negotiating by either side. Both parties have dropped some proposals to narrow the issues. Now we need to dig deep and find areas where we can come to agreement. We remain dedicated to our threefold commitment to all our valued employees,patients and communities.
We are working on firming up a date next week for another bargaining session. Our team offered several additional dates in July and welook forward to continuing to bargain.
Sincerely,
Theresa Hannu, CNO
and the Bargaining Team
