SEIU Local 1991 members packed membership meetings around the county during our December members meetings to learn the latest information on the Jackson budget crisis, healthcare reform, and our grievance battles. As the New Year approaches, employees at JHS are more concerned than ever about what the future holds. With the possibility of more layoffs and resassignments looming, and the Senior VP of Human Resources Trummell Valdera attempting to run JHS with total disregard for its dedicated employees, one thing that is clear, our unity and perseverance has never been more important.

 

At the meetings, members learned about our union’s efforts to maximize Medicaid revenue which could bring in at additional $50 million to Jackson’s budget annually.  President Martha Baker, RN, explained the partnership agreement that we are trying to work out with CEO Dr. Roldan which will benefit the employees, patient care, as well as Jackson’s bottom line. Although Dr. Roldan has held many discussions with us, she has, unfortunately, not yet agreed to work in partnership with us to reach solutions for Jackson.

 

“We want to work together with [Roldan] to make Jackson better,” Baker said at the Dec. 17 meeting at Jackson Main. “We want to fix the grievances that we keep butting heads on and come to a mutual agreement between management and employees. We need Dr. Roldan to work with us, not against us.”

 

On November 9, 2009, it was announced that effective January 11, 2010, Jackson would be closing the Mental Health unit at Jackson North, the Wound Care Center at Jackson South, 18 positions in the CCU on Main campus and two clinics – North Miami Health Center and Juanita Mann. Our union’s leaders and staff have been working diligently to make sure our contract language regarding layoffs and reassignments is honored. We have contacted all affected employees and helping each of them work through the process of reassignment or bumping. We have been pushing administration to open more positions where patient load warrants so that everyone whose position was eliminated can be placed.

 

We filed and won a grievance to allow SW 6&7 nurses, whose units were closed last Spring but originally weren’t allowed to choose a reassignment, to get first choice of assignment. We also demanded meetings with administrators so that affected Jackson South and Jackson North nurses could present quality and cost-saving reasons their units should not be closed and hear from administrators the logic they used in closing these units.

 

 

A survey will be circulated in the coming weeks to compile suggestions from the trenches on how Jackson can save money, improve patient care, be more efficient or increase revenue. Members will work with union leadership and present their cost-saving measures to management. ALL MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO COMPLETE THIS SURVEY. 

 

“If you can think of any suggestions about how to save money, make money or eliminate waste, we are asking you to put those ideas on paper so that we can present them to management,” Baker said at the Dec. 17^th meeting. “You have a lot of ideas from working in the trenches. We will be forming small focus groups on a regular basis.”

 

Once the surveys are tabulated, we will be asking members to attend meetings in January with Dr. Roldan and her management team to present our ideas so that Jackson can meet its budget in these tough times.

 

Ask your colleagues to join with us. Nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals know that solidarity of healthcare professionals has never been more important. All members need to be sharing this message with their colleagues and asking them to join our union if they are not already members. Our strength in these tough times is our unity!

To see more photos from this event and other union activities, check out our Photos page!