Carthage Area Hospital union says proposed pact 'insulting'

CARTHAGE — Carthage Area Hospital administrators are asking workers to make sacrifices they are not in a position to make, Service Employees International Union Local 1199 members and representatives say.

Tracy L. Tupper, local union representative and the chief negotiator in talks with the hospital, said during a press conference Monday that although administrators haven't given a reason why employees must sacrifice wages and benefits, it may be linked to the recent $9.2 million expansion project.

"They've been successful in putting on an expansion, and that's great. The community needed it and we're all for that. But now they're asking that the workers give up their benefits and wages to help pay for that expansion, and that's just not fair," Ms. Tupper said. "The cost of growing shouldn't fall on the backs of the workers."

Union members said at the press conference they were insulted by the concessions the hospital asked for, especially since the institution is not in financial crisis.

"You don't become a health-care worker to get rich. These people are just surviving; they're just getting by. Then to ask them to pay a 50 percent increase on family health insurance and take a one or one and a half percent wage increase, it's just insulting," said Kathy M. Tucker, local union vice president. "They've made millions of dollars, and you put that on the table as a wage offer? You've got to be kidding me."

Susan K. Hayes, an X-ray technologist who has worked at the hospital for more than 15 years, also worked at the former Mercy Hospital in Watertown, which struggled financially for years.

"At Mercy in Watertown we didn't have proposals like this, and they went bankrupt," she said. "Never have I seen proposals of a healthy institution that descend to this level.

Ms. Hayes said the original wage offer was a 0.25 percent increase. Union negotiators have since raised it to 1 percent for licensed practical nurses and technicians, who have been working without a contract since April 1, and 1.5 percent for service, maintenance and clerical workers, whose contract expired June 1. Registered nurses, under a separate contract, are represented by the New York State Nurses Association, Albany.

Members and representatives said it isn't enough.

"The family health insurance that I carry would mean a difference of almost $100 every paycheck," Ms. Hayes said. "With the wage increase they're proposing, I get a little over $400 a year wage increase. So in two months of paying family health insurance, my wage increase for the year is gone."

If the union and the hospital cannot balance out the wage increase and insurance costs, workers may have to make choices.

"Workers would have to drop their health-care coverage," Ms. Tupper said.

Debra A. Herzig, a cook at the hospital, said she thinks there will be more decisions to make if employees decide to keep insurance.

"Those people are going to have to choose," she said. "It's going to mean whether the kids eat when they get home from school or if I'm going to put gas in my car to go to work that night."

Both Ms. Hayes and Ms. Tupper claim they do not expect an "outrageous" wage increase, and do not have a specific number in mind.

"We want to maintain the benefits we have and get a reasonable wage increase that helps us get through," Ms. Tupper said.

Until a new contract is reached, the current terms and conditions remain in effect.

Union members now plan to bring retroactivity to the bargaining table. This would allow workers to be paid their raise as if it had been decided upon when their contract ended. Ms. Tupper said the hospital is adamantly opposed to this proposal.

Carthage Area Hospital Administrator Walter S. Becker declined to comment on the negotiations.

The union and hospital each have filed complaints against each other, and the National Labor Relations Board charged the hospital with several violations. The hospital will defend itself at a July 30 hearing in Syracuse unless the issues are resolved beforehand.

The union held the press conference to alert the public to the stalled negotiations, which began in February and had been ongoing until last week. In past years, contract negotiations have led to strikes and picketing.

"We don't want to get to that point," Ms. Tupper said. "That's what we're here for, to reach out and say we need community support and help convince administration that it's in the best interest of the hospital and the whole community to go back to the table and get a fair contract."