After meeting twice for training and ground-rules discussions, SHARE & UMass Memorial management’s negotiating teams met last Thursday for our first official negotiating session.
Current Highlights
The SHARE 2022 Contract Negotiations Team: (kneeling, left-right): Kim Latrobe, Kellie Morton, Tracy O’Donnell; (middle row): Kathy Girouard, Jana Hollingsworth, Deb Clark, Christean Hughes; (back row): Janet Wilder, Rita Caputo, Deb Largesse, Jay Hagan, Deb Engvall, Carol Hehir, Kona Enders; (not pictured): AJ Iaconi, Armon Rad, Elisabeth Szanto, Kirk Davis, Tameka McDaniel-Vasquez
Both teams opened with introductory statements (described below). SHARE’s opening statement focused on the results from our series of surveys earlier in the year, and on the need, now more than ever, for meaningful raises.
The teams got to know each other better with introductions from each individual negotiator, in which they described how long they’ve been working with UMass Memorial and/or SHARE, what they do in their current job role, and a bit about their life and interests outside of work. See the list of negotiators below.
Both teams are now preparing financial presentations as a prospective topic for the next negotiation session.
SHARE Opening Statement: Partnership & Hard Conversations
Lead SHARE Negotiator Janet Wilder kicked off the opening statements by providing a broad overview of SHARE’s current relationship with UMass Memorial and our developing Labor Management Partnership, which has worked strategically to align around our common interests. This includes Unit Based Teams, and lobbying together against the expansion of Mass General Brigham’s into Central Massachusetts, a program designed to poach primarily well-insured patients to its own clinics. Janet also pointed out that although SHARE will, as always, maintain respectful discussions, she warned that partnership isn’t about “niceness,” that instead it lays the groundwork to have hard conversations, especially around the issues we would be raising in negotiations.
SHARE Opening Statement: Member Priorities
Based on countless conversations among SHARE members and SHARE leaders, as well as the 4069 completed surveys, Janet described that what’s really clear is that:
1. Raises are the top priority for members—they always are, but they overshadow SHARE members’ other interests more than usual;
2. Members have a strong interest in retaining and recruiting co-workers, an issue seen as very interconnected with raises;
3. SHARE members want to describe their experience working through Covid;
4. Benefits (especially Health Insurance and the pension), and
5. Career Opportunities remain extremely important.
Beyond that, there is a basket of issues that are extremely important to large segments of the SHARE membership, including Work-from-Home issues, Unit Based Teams, etc.
Bringing SHARE Member Voice Directly into Negotiations
To round out the Opening Statement, members of the SHARE negotiating team each read from the SHARE Survey Report, which summarizes the results from all four SHARE surveys. SHARE members made a number of powerful comments in the surveys, which the Negotiating Team read aloud as well. We will post that report soon.
UMass Memorial Management Opening Statement
Mike Pacinda delivered the opening statement on behalf of UMass Memorial management, acknowledging challenges that confront the hospital and the SHARE members who work there. He began by crediting front-line staff and management. “Things feel different now . . . they are different now. We all know what we’ve been through,” he said. “Since this pandemic started, people have been working extraordinarily hard in trying times and with new processes.”
Mike went on to describe additional work that he has personally been involved with in partnership with SHARE, including work throughout the pandemic to establish systems for redeployment and the hospital’s labor pools, when some SHARE members had to shift from their regular jobs to serve as screeners and prescription couriers, among other things.
He also recognized the hard conversations we had around vaccine mandate, where SHARE worked in partnership to help SHARE members get access to the vaccine as well as answers to their questions, while at the same time objecting to some of the ways the mandate was implemented: “that was hard for a lot of people,” Mike said.
Which brings us, Mike said, to the perfect storm we’re in now: the short staffing and overtime mandates, people leaving jobs in record numbers, and the unprecedented leaves due to Covid. “Managers aren’t immune to this either, working hard to keep positions and schedules filled,” he said, describing the recruitment challenges. “We all really want to tail off the use of travelers and focus on full-time staff.”
At same time, Mike maintained that the SHARE-UMass Memorial partnership has helped us get through this . . . and that we would be in a much more difficult place without partnership, without the consistent transparency, bringing together subject matter experts, updates on Covid numbers, redeployment & problem solving teams. Those helped UMass Memorial avoid layoffs and furloughs. Mike described how he spoke daily or more with SHARE leaders. That, coupled with our overlapping interests – interest in fair equitable raises, quick process, maintaining respectful relationships, and a sustainable contract that strengthens the hospital for the future, serve as an important foundation for these negotiations. “My hope is that we have enough tools here, plus trust respect and confidence, that we can address many of these issues and resolve this contract in a way that is positive for both parties,” Mike said. “The management team looks forward to getting going in earnest.”
Who’s Who on the Negotiating Teams
Mike Pacinda (Lead Management Negotiator): Senior Labor and Employee Relations Specialist
Janet Wilder (Lead SHARE Negotiator): SHARE Organizer
Shannon Taylor: Human Resources Business Partner
Karen Pendergast: Human Resources Business Partner
Jackie Baronowski: Director, Community Medical Group Billing
Sue McCabe: Vice President of Operations, Community Medical Group
Cassandra Trice: Director of Registration Services
Deb Engvall: SHARE Organizer
Kellie Morton: Medical Assistant, Outpatient Oncology & SHARE Organizer
Kirk Davis: SHARE Organizer
Mabel Romeo: Director, Health Information Management
Christean Hughes: Accounts Receivable Specialist II, Community Medical Group Billing & SHARE Executive Board
Kim Latrobe: Technologist, Surgical Vascular Lab & SHARE Rep
Donna Vickery: Human Resources Business Partner
Dena Briggs: Human Resources Business Partner
Joy Cournoyer: Director, Single Billing Office
Jana Hollingsworth: SHARE Organizer
Zailee Estrada: Director, Patient Access
Nick Potvin: Nurse Manager 3 East
Rachel Carragher: Manager, Respiratory Care
Kathy Girouard: Senior Coding Specialist, Vascular Lab & SHARE Union Treasurer
Deb Largesse: SHARE Organizer
Tracy O’Donnell: Senior Medical Administrative Secretary, Memorial Hospital Medicine & SHARE Executive Board
Stephanie Doan-Soares: UMass Memorial Administrative Fellow, Anchor Mission program
Debra Clark: Unit Secretary, Clinical Decision Unit & SHARE Union Secretary
Rita Caputo: Ambulatory Services Rep, Primary Care Clinic & SHARE Union Co-President, University Campus
Jay Hagan: CT Technologist & SHARE Union Co-President, Memorial Campus
Ian Copland: Financial Planning
Kona Enders: Patient Care Associate, 3 West & SHARE Organizer
Carol Hehir: SHARE Organizer
Shavel Aldolphe: Senior Director, Ambulatory Operations
AJ Iaconi: SHARE Organizer
Tameka McDaniel-Vasquez: Financial Clearance Specialist, Insurance Verification & SHARE Executive Board
Armon Rad: Lead Registration Rep & SHARE Executive Board
Elisabeth Szanto: SHARE Organizer
Partnership Office: Will Erickson, Crystal Swenson & Steph Pepi
Learn more
See all of the published news about negotiations in blog posts labeled #Negotiations