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Health-care unions eye possible merger
BY BRIAN C. JONES
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Rhode Island’s two major health-care unions are discussing a merger that would create one of the state’s largest labor unions, with about 7200 nurses and other health-care workers. The unions are United Nurses & Allied Professionals (UNAP), which has 4000 members, and District 1199, New England Health Care Employees Union, with about 3200 members. Leaders of both unions say the combination — if it eventually happens — could increase not only their bargaining power, but their political strength at the General Assembly. At a time when many labor unions are struggling nationally to maintain or increase membership, as well as to negotiate progressive contracts, UNAP and District 1199 already have impressive track records. District 1199 endured a month-long strike and lockout at Women’s & Infants Hospital in Providence that resulted in unexpected wage gains and other benefits when a contract was ratified in 1999. The hospital said it won work rule and other desired concessions. That dispute was important because the women’s health and maternity hospital had used unusually tough measures to try to gain contract concessions, bringing in out-of-state nurses to replace strikers and locking out the union for 29 days after it staged a one-day strike. But the union won rights to unemployment benefits, paid entirely by the hospital. It was a turning point in the strike, and may have served as a warning to other industries to be wary of lockout tactics. UNAP was formed in 1998 when it broke away from the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, maintaining that the parent union wasn’t paying enough attention to its health-care workers. Since then, UNAP has come to the brink of walkouts, but has been able to negotiate contracts without actually having to strike. This year alone, it successfully negotiated a number of three-year pacts with Rhode Island Hospital, the state’s largest, and several other hospitals. Rick Brooks, director of UNAP, says the merger talks are at an early stage, both between the Rhode Island unions and with the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is District 1199’s parent union. "We are at a very, very preliminary stage of exploration of the possibilities," Brooks says. But if the merger happens, the combined organization "would take us to another level of influence and power," he says. Stan Israel, vice president of District 1199, says a successful merger "will help our members both meet the challenge of the future and be in a position of having more power and more political clout." The unions’ legislative agendas include bills to limit the use of "mandatory overtime" by hospitals, which retain nurses and others to work extra shifts because of a shortage of workers, and bills that would require hospitals to have a minimum number of nurses per shift. In addition to nurses and other workers at Rhode Island Hospital, UNAP represents workers at facilities including Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in Pawtucket; Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket; Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence; and Westerly Hospital. District 1199 represents workers at Women & Infants and Butler psychiatric hospitals, both in Providence, and a number of nursing homes. Among the local unions which would remain larger are Council 94, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which has more than 10,000 current and retired government workers, and two teachers’ unions, the AFT, whose Web site lists 10,000 members, and the Rhode Island unit of the National Education Association, which claims about 9500 workers.
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