[lee1]

http://www.projo.com/news/content/pr...4.37532c9.html

Nurses get 12.5-percent pay raises

The United Nurses and Allied Professionals union says the recently signed contract extension also expands hiring ranges and continuing education opportunities.


01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, August 14, 2005


BY JENNIFER JORDAN and ELIZABETH GUDRAIS
Journal Staff Writers



PROVIDENCE -- Nurses and allied professionals at Rhode Island Hospital will receive 12.5-percent raises, thanks to a two-year contract extension signed Aug. 4.

The higher pay rates "make us competitive at the low end, and the highest in the state for people with 10 years or more on the job," United Nurses and Allied Professionals union president Linda McDonald said. "We needed to be more competitive, and these rates will enable us to do that."

The union says the extension, which runs through July 30, 2008, also expands hiring ranges and continuing education opportunities and will boost morale. The 1,900-member union includes nurses and allied professionals such as respiratory therapists, radiology technologists, surgical technologists and diagnostic imaging technologists.

Under the agreement, all union members will receive a 1.5-percent increase immediately, retroactive to July 1. This increase is in addition to a 3.5-percent increase employees received last month.

Employees will also receive a 2-percent increase on Jan. 1, 2006, a 4.5-percent increase on Jan. 1, 2007, and a 4.5-percent increase on Jan. 1, 2008.

In addition, most employees will receive anniversary raises or longevity increases, bringing total pay raises to as much as 30 percent by 2008.

By way of example, a registered nurse on the job eight years made $27.40 an hour prior to the contract extension, McDonald said. After step increases and other applicable raises, that nurse's pay would be $34.66 an hour on Jan. 1, 2008, McDonald said.

The union members' current contract was scheduled to expire next summer. Negotiations for the extension took six weeks, McDonald said.

She said the extension preserved union members' benefits intact. "There were no takeaways, and that's important to us," she said.

The hospital has also agreed to contribute $100,000 a year to the recently formed UNAP/Rhode Island Hospital health-care education trust, which will provide education and training for hospital employees.

The agreement also provides for up to three union members to work full-time as labor-management liaisons, to improve communication and morale. In return, the union agreed to discuss hospital concerns about the current leave of absence policy.

[suzy253]

Hooray & about time!!!

[Faeriewand]

"By way of example, a registered nurse on the job eight years made $27.40 an hour"


Geez I can't believe that after 8 years on the job a nurse was making only $27/hr. They were severely underpaid. Go UNION!

[graduatenurse]

Nurses get 12.5-percent pay raises

How come nurses in my state dont get a raise? And how come we are not unionized?????

[GoLytely]

Way to go union. When I took a job at a nursing home (NHC) they made us watch this video trying to pursuade us to stay away from unions, because unions did not work in the benefit of the patient and the patients were the most important ones to consider. If we joined a union we would be working against not just the nursing home BUT the patient! They always tried to lay that guilt trip on us to keep us subdued and feeling like we shouldn't expect to be paid what we were worth.
I hope the unions get busy on the rest of the country.

[sunnyjohn]

Good for them. As a surgical technologist and I'm glad they included the allied health workers in the pay raises!

[Thunderwolf]

Congrats to them!