Update: Meeting to Protect Our Contract During Sale of Hospital

February 2014

As most of us know, the Daughters of Charity Health System (DOCHS) has announced plans to sell all of its hospitals, including St. Francis. The officers of SFRNA and representatives from UNAC/UHCP met on February 10, 2014 with representatives from DOCHS and SFMC to discuss what this means for our members. We will do everything in our power to protect our contract, retirement, rights and benefits during the sale. Following is a report from the meeting.

The meeting was held at SFMC in the administrative conference room and included these individuals:

For UNAC/UHCP and SFRNA:

Ken Deitz, UNAC/UHCP President
Bill Rouse, UNAC/UHCP Chief Negotiator/Executive to Officers
Lisa Demidovich, Esq. UNAC/UHCP General Council
Penny Brown, UNAC/UHCP Staff Representative
Sandi Marques, SFRNA President
Scott Byington, SFRNA Vice-President
Edwin Guardado, SFRNA Secretary
Marlene Castanon, SFRNA Treasurer

For DOCHS/ST. Francis Medical Center (SFMC):

Mike Stuart, CFO DOCHS
Pascale Roy, Esq. DOCHS General Council
Scott Jackson, DOCHS Finance Consultant
Andrew Turnbull, DOCHS Finance Consultant
Vicki DelCastillo, SFMC HR

SFRNA/UNAC/UHCP’s goals for the meeting:

Gain commitment for funding of the SFMC pension
Gain commitment for Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)/LMA extension
Gain commitment to ensure honoring of successorship language
Gain commitment from SFMC to honor one grid for all RNs as of March 1st as negotiated

The purpose and goal of the meeting from DOCHS/SFMC’s view were to achieve the following:

Review the process SFMC/DOCHS is undergoing for the sale of DOCHS
Gain an understanding from the leadership of UNAC/UHCP and SFRNA that the process is as a hospital system and is difficult to separate into individual facilities
Gain a commitment from UNAC/UHCP/SFRNA to cooperate and portray a visually inviting portrait of good labor relations
Portray transparency to gain cooperation from labor

Results of Meeting:

DOCHS has $290 million in secured liabilities. Secured liabilities would be paid off prior to funding of either the SFMC church sponsored pension or the multi-employer pension upon a sale.
SFMC pension remains underfunded (currently funded at about 50%)
Attempts were made to achieve a commitment from DOCHS for priority funding of the SFMC pension. DOCHS acknowledged the degree of pension underfunding.
Attempts were made to achieve a commitment for a contract extension.
Attempts were made to gain commitment from SFMC to honor the placement of all RNs on the negotiated wage grid as of March 1st. The current intent of SFMC is to exclude all 8 and 10 hour RNs from the negotiated grid as of March 1st.
DOCHS clearly communicated that their desire to be transparent was limited and their primary goal was to avoid labor demonstrating in any action that would be viewed as unfavorable to a buyer.
DOCHS Financial Adviser stated that sales materials sent to interested buyers will be revealed only when non-disclosure agreements are signed.

Although the parties discussed the above issues without reaching agreement, DOCHS/SFMC and UNAC/UHCP/ SFRNA have scheduled another meeting in the near future to continue the conversation.

SFRNA Next Steps

The lines of communication remain open with DOCHS/SFMC.
UNAC/UHCP/SFRNA will continue to engage in discussions with DOCHS/SFMC.
SFRNA will proceed with preparations for contract negotiations. The SFRNA officers are firm in their belief that proceeding with negotiations will not be from a stance of concessions. We will proceed as we normally do--from a position of strength.

What can the SFRNA Members do?:

Continue coming to work and providing excellent care to our patients and their families.
Communication is Key! Please sign up for the new text blast system by texting SFRNA to 411247. You will receive an auto reply. Respond by typing Y and hitting send. Then you will be signed up. Watch for text blasts from UNAC/UHCP. You can help by sharing the sign up instructions with all fellow SFRNA Members.
UNAC/ UHCP is also updating the SFRNA email database. If you know any SFRNA members who are not receiving UNAC/UHCP email updates and communications like this one, please ask them to inform an SFRNA officer or call 909-599-8622 to provide their personal email address directly to UNAC/UHCP.

If you have any questions regarding the above information, please contact one of your SFRNA Officers.