Carthage nurses have contract

CARTHAGE — New York State Nurses Association members at the hospital here have reached a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract, just four days before their current one would expire.

The 53 nurses at Carthage Area Hospital last week won their fight to keep low-cost health insurance, according to Annie M. Rutsky, labor relations representative for the association.

The current plan requires a $500 annual deductible/maximum out-of-pocket cost for individuals and $1,000 for families, but that will be phased out come Jan. 1. Nurses then will be required to reach a $3,000 deductible for individuals and $6,000 for families, but there will be no added costs for them because the hospital will contribute most of those funds into a health savings account.

"They're depositing $2,500 and $5,000, so the nurses would be subject to the same deductible for the old plan, so it's really cost-neutral," Mrs. Rutsky said. "The employer agreed to fund health savings accounts in two installments; one in January and the other 50 percent in July, which is pretty unheard of."

She said they also got contract language that states that if nurses need medical attention between January and July but don't have enough in their health savings account to cover all of their out-of-pocket expense, the hospital will help the nurses and make up the difference.

"We struggled hard for that negotiation; they didn't want to budget," Mrs. Rutsky said. "We kept minds open and really listened to each other."

The tentative agreement also includes a wage increase for all registered nurses and an increase in differential pay for night-shift registered nurses by 12.5 percent to try to remedy a 34 percent night-shift vacancy rate. The differential pay will be $1.80 per hour for 2010, $1.90 for 2011, and then up to $2.20 per hour in 2012.

Mrs. Rutsky said that nurses will also receive an additional 2.5 percent wage increase each year of the contract, and in the first year will get an additional 25 cents an hour added to their base compensation rate.

Obstetric registered nurses also won the right to receive hourly specialty differential pay, compensation that was previously offered only to critical-care unit and emergency department registered nurses.

Registered nurses and hospital management will work to develop and launch a mentor program that offers workshops and in-service training to newly hired nurses.

"The nurses really pushed hard to keep their priorities on the table," Mrs. Rutsky said. "This is an agreement that will help the hospital provide the high-quality care that this community deserves."

Carthage Area Hospital Administrator Walter S. Becker agreed.

"We're very pleased," he said. "We've got good nurses. There wasn't a doubt for a minute we were going to have issues with it. We've got many nurses who've been here for a lifetime career, and we value that very much."