This story by Bob Audette was published by the Brattleboro Reformer on June 27.
[B]RATTLEBORO — Citing “a number of odd policy changes” that are in “direct violation” of their labor contract at the Brattleboro Retreat, about 100 members of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals Union staged an informational picket Tuesday on the Brattleboro Common.
“These are great people who want to provide the best care for their patients,” said Sy Creamer, who takes over the presidency of UNAP Unit 1 on Sunday.
According to a news release from UNAP, the relationship between union members and the Retreat’s administration reached a breaking point on June 15, “when hundreds of frontline staff nurses and mental health workers were handed totally new work schedules, effective July 15, though essentially none of them had asked for schedule changes nor had any of them been consulted about how these new schedules would affect their lives. The schedule changes were made without ‘prior consultation and discussion with the Union,’ without any consideration of ‘job classification seniority,’ and were done in an ‘arbitrary and capricious manner.’”
The schedule changes came in the middle of a negotiating process between the Retreat and UNAP for a one-year extension of the contract that expires on Oct. 31, said Creamer.
“We have been trying since February to reach an agreement,” she said. “We want collaboration and shared governance. These things don’t cost anything except time and respect.”
Winston Sailsman, the president of UNAP Unit 2, said the union has done “everything we could do” to reach an agreement with the Retreat before Oct. 31, but Retreat administrators have been dragging their feet.
“We have been trying to play catch, but they’re keeping the ball,” he said, adding if no contract is reached by Oct. 31, union members have the right to go on strike, something he and others would not like to see. “We do a great job providing patient care.”
According to the press release, scheduling changes are “direct violations of our contract with the Retreat …” which was approved in November 2015.
“Employees who had established schedules for decades suddenly were told they would be working completely different days and weekends,” stated the press release. “To say this has caused an uproar is putting it mildly. Union members feel it’s an outrage for a psychiatric institution to so unnecessarily and arbitrarily create hospital-wide anxiety and stress. A number of employees cannot change their current schedules, and will have to leave their jobs.”
Konstantin von Krusenstiern, the Retreat’s vice president for development and communications, told the Reformer the scheduling changes were a result of a study conducted by administrators and the Retreat’s new chief nursing officer.
“We looked at how we’ve been doing our scheduling and it doesn’t align with best practices around the nation,” he said. He also noted that according to the existing contract, the Retreat has the right to issue scheduling changes as long as they are issued 30 days in advance of implementation. The contract also allows for employees to address any conflicts or scheduling issues with their managers, said von Krusenstiern.
“It’s called a draft schedule,” said von Krusenstiern. “There are policies and procedures in place where employees can go to their managers, or they can swap shifts as long as it maintains safe care for our patients.”
Von Krusenstiern noted that scheduling changes are meant “to align with industry standards and proven practices. While we appreciate the fact that change can be difficult, the Retreat is not asking staff to adopt any work practices that aren’t already considered normal and customary at health care organizations across the nation.”
Eileen J. Grover issued a statement on behalf of union members, in which she stated the administration “has been creating new rules and pushing the boundaries of existing agreements … The almost constant stream of changes in the past year has been taxing, draining, overwhelming.”
According to the UNAP press release, scheduling issues have been ongoing for many years, including mandated shifts, “where staff would be told at the end of their regular eight-hour shift that they were required to work the next eight-hour shift as well … just this past weekend, half the evening shift on some floors were mandated staff from the previous shift. This is unsafe for patients and unhealthy for staff.”
According to the press release, during the last contract negotiations, “the union gave a number of concessions with the aim of helping the administration end, or at least greatly reduce, these mandated shifts. That didn’t happen.” While mandated shifts are normally paid double time, according to the press release, “The union willingly took a ‘temporary’ wage cut for mandated shifts, which was supposed to be restored if the mandation issue was not resolved. It wasn’t, but the administration has refused to restore the wage cut.”
According to documents supplied to the Reformer, prior to the wage cut, employees who worked mandated shifts were paid two-and-a-half times their normal wage. The cut dropped that wage to two times their normal wage. In addition, according to a person familiar with mandated shifts, not everyone at the Retreat is a full-time worker; even part-time workers receive the boost in pay for mandated shifts.
“(T)he schedule changes seem like just another unnecessary and disrespectful power play on the part of a few administrators who have been openly hostile to the union and have consistently acted as though they do not need to take our contract into consideration when they make policy changes,” states the UNAP press release. “(I)t is impossible to respect administrators and managers who would create massive schedule changes for hundreds of employees without consulting any of them, or taking into consideration seniority, already long established work schedules, family obligations, staff attending college, staff with second jobs, single parents with child care, couples who both work at the Retreat, our current contract, and more.”
Von Krusenstiern told the Reformer that administrators at the Retreat tried to work with the union to resolve scheduling issues.
“The union has declined in favor of picketing. We respect the union’s right to inform the public about any opinions they may have; however, we do not believe the approach they have chosen will help resolve our differences,” he said.
The Brattleboro Retreat, which has been in operation for 184 years, employs 870 people and is the largest employer in Windham County. About 580 of the employees belong to UNAP.
“Despite our differences,” said von Krusenstiern, “the administration appreciates the hard work of our employees, who are our most important asset. While they show up day in and day out, we must do what is best, not just for our employees but also for the mission of the Retreat, which is to provide the best care possible for our patients.”
