Psych me up-- union negotiations!

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We have been in union negotiations for a while... and tonight we start to talk money.

In my district (and pretty much all local districts) nurses are included in the support staff contract (same as secretaries, custodial staff, cooks, ect). I have been prepping myself to properly advocate for myself and my fellow nurses to get a significant bump in pay. I have researched other local contracts and several have given their nurses big bumps in the last couple years.

Currently, my district pays a first year school nurse 78% of what a first year teacher gets paid. (regardless of any previous nursing experience that is NOT school nursing)

Some points I want to bring up are that nurses are the only members of the support staff contract that have a required degree and required continuing education as well as a skill set that cannot be delegated. Our job is professional, not vocational. Our population has increased and there are more kids than ever with chronic conditions that require frequent, if not daily monitoring (diabetes is the best example). Not to mention the increase in numbers of kids with severe allergies, ADD/ADHD, taking daily medication, and other conditions that we need to prepare for in case of emergency (epilepsy, tourette's, a variety of cardiac conditions).

Any input on what else I can say or impress on the board? Any help is appreciated!!

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YOU HAVE AN UNION? Our district doesn't have that for nurses (but luckily we can have insurance and benefits for full and part time). Our new nursing supervisor wants to fight for us to unionize since the highest paid nurse still has a lower pay than a new teacher.

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

I am in your same boat. My job is in the category of "classified", with all the teacher aides/cooks, etc. while the teachers/therapists are "certified". The certified get to negotiate their contracts every year and have a committee who advocates for them. The classified group gets what we are offered. It sounds like you have some great points and I wish you the best of luck. I won't be rocking the boat at my school. Its a very good job, and I know there are plenty of people ready to jump at it, so I accept what I get.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Public Health, Home Care.

Sometimes numbers are impressive. "I am responsible for writing and reviewing annual health plans for xx number of students". "In xyz building, we have x number of students with life-threatening allergies, for which I am responsible to be sure they have the correct life saving medication, for educating staff about their condition, etc, etc."

Many nursing positions outside of the school system pay easily double or triple he hourly rate of school nurses. You get the idea. Good Luck and let the forum know how you make out.

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My union is 3 of us. The problem is, for LI, we actually make more than other school districts, but it's still peanuts.

Hammer home being the only medical professional in the building, the lawsuits you are probably saving the school, the medically fragile kids, etc.

We are asking for a flat rate raise over 2 years and percentage over the next 2. We are asking for a 1% increase only to pay for our benefits, and we've already gotten no charge on opting out of benefits- which is huge, because all 3 of us opt out.

We aren't going to get the money, I can tell you that right now. :no:

And that will most likely seal my fate, and I will leave when my son graduates in 2017.

Best of luck to you! Keep us posted!

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YOU HAVE AN UNION? Our district doesn't have that for nurses (but luckily we can have insurance and benefits for full and part time). Our new nursing supervisor wants to fight for us to unionize since the highest paid nurse still has a lower pay than a new teacher.

I have been here almost 4 years. I guess they organized a little over 10 years ago. Their first contract was small- about 7 pages. And then they expanded it quite a bit about 8 years ago. Our union rep said they pretty much just rolled over the past 2 negotiations and now we are asking for a lot of revisions. We have a new superintendent, who I like, so I'm hoping he is open to making the employees happy :)

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Specializes in School nurse.

In NJ we are in the teachers union. Do you do any teaching? Is certification required? State required vaccinations, reports, best practice etc. NASN has language you can use that describes the responsibilities. Good luck!!

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I would like to wish you good luck.. I think you have a good argument already. In our district, we are part of the teacher's union and on a teacher's contract and pay scale (1st year school nurse paid same as 1st year teacher, same hours/benefits- I believe that years outside experience as a nurse is calculated 2:1- so if you have 4 years as a nurse (but are a new school nurse), you'd get paid the salary as a 2nd year teacher, but then you get raises every year of service just like a teacher Even though this is less than nurses generally make, it's a HUGE thing to be part of the teacher's contract, because any new benefits the teachers negotiate, includes the nurse.

Good luck and keep us posted.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, OB, ICU, Public Health Nursing.

You can review many contracts online. Just look up some unions and see if the nurse's are included in the teacher's union contract. Where I am, the teacher's are not part of the county and though unionized, they make significantly less than county workers. I hope that is helpful. The other thing I always try to consider, is what can we get that means a lot to the employee, but isn't part of salary

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Specializes in Med-Surg, OB, ICU, Public Health Nursing.

You can review many contracts online. Just look up some unions and see if the nurse's are included in the teacher's union contract. Where I am, the teacher's are not part of the county and though unionized, they make significantly less than county workers. I hope that is helpful. The other thing I always try to consider, is what can we get that means a lot to the employee, but isn't part of salary.

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Thanks guys! I've reviewed A LOT of contracts over the course of our negotiations. Very few of them have nursing specific language. In IL if you are a certified school nurse (it's not required) then you are on the teacher contract/pay scale. I've looked into it- It's at least a $10,000 program.

The problem with the support staff contract is that there are SOOO many job categories that when we start negotiating, many topics only apply to one group so the meetings can be kinda boring.

AND I'm pretty miffed that we never got around to talking about money yesterday. I skipped my daughter's fifth grade concert to go specifically because we were told that would be on the table. So aggravated.

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Good luck! Negotiations are never easy. I have no union here and negotiate my own contract each year for the following one. I would say a big issue here is Attendance. How many kids are not missing school because of you? ie. Asthmatics whose mom now feels comfortable sending in Jimmy even when he has a cold because she knows you're going to take care of him. Another biggie is lawsuits. There were a lot of things not in compliance with law here when I started and I have taken the steps needed to make sure we are not setting ourselves up for a lawsuit in those areas. I may be considered support staff but I am a professional and my job requirements and responsibilities are not in the same line as the custodians and secretaries in the building! Good luck!

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