JANUARY 10, 2020 — President Bill Garrity gives a negotiations debrief. (You do not need a Facebook account to access the video):
Based on our bargaining sessions so far, it has become clear:
Management wants to take away personal time.
Personal time as we know it would change, by being reduced and more restricted.
Management wants to take away overtime.
At a time when we’re struggling to get people to work additional hours to cover staffing shortages and holes in the schedule, management is seeking to eliminate “daily” OT (for working beyond your shift) and stop counting accrued time toward your hours for the week when calculating overtime.
Management is taking away float differential.
We have been notified that, by the end of January 2021, nurses no longer will receive the $1/hour float differential. While the current contract gives UConn Health the right to unilaterally do this, it is a slap in the face to take this step, especially now, as nurses are working in a pandemic without hazard pay and scrambling to cover areas with a high census. From hero to zero!
These are just some early examples of what our employer is trying to get out of our next contract. Stay tuned for additional information in the weeks to come.