SHARE Info Meetings & End-of-Summer Updates 

We hope this finds you well here at the end of the Dog Days of Summer. We hope to see many of you in the Information Meetings over the next couple of days. Read on for more details about those, as well as . . . 

  • The SHARE COVID Survey results and recommendations to management, 

  • Back-to-School considerations, 

  • SHARE Member Spotlights, and 

  • An FSA reminder 

SHARE Virtual Information Meetings 

Please join SHARE organizers online in the coming days to discuss the outcomes from the recent SHARE COVID survey, and to discuss the recommendations that we are currently making to hospital management about our hospital’s ongoing operations, including the preparations for a potential second surge of the coronavirus in Central Massachusetts. We have currently scheduled two sessions. Click the date below to log in automatically during the Zoom session: 

Wednesday, August 26th, 8:00-8:45 am 

Thursday, August 27th, 4:00-4:45  

SHARE COVID Survey Results 

In case you missed it, SHARE recently published a results-summary of the SHARE COVID Survey, along with our union’s recommendations to UMass Memorial.  

Work continues to be intense for many SHARE members. Many SHARE members have had very different experiences. Above all, we recognize the need to urge the hospital to: 

  • Commit to job security and Health Insurance 

  • Focus on PPE and safety 

  • Focus on department leadership 

  • Provide Hazard Pay 

  • Continue and expand Work-from-Home arrangements 

  • Create greater transparency and choice for Labor Pool deployments 

SHARE has categorized its specific recommendations in four groups, based on the feedback from members in these scenarios during the previous surge: 

Back-to-School Survey for UMass Memorial Employees 

If you have school age children in your home, SHARE encourages you to complete our hospital’s brief childcare survey. The hospital’s Childcare Task Force is currently working to rapidly develop strategies to help accommodate families and the new needs involved with remote schooling and increased limitations in childcare.   

Our impressions are promising: SHARE leaders involved on the Task Force report that the hospital seems to have a clear-eyed view of the challenges that families currently face, and how they could potentially affect staffing and patient care. The challenges are real, and the shared information can help us take care of the needs together.  

Labor Scholarship Awarded to High School Senior in SHARE Family 

SHARE is also pleased to congratulate Nancy Foskett, a SHARE member in the HIM department: her son Liam recently received a $1000 scholarship from the Central Massachusetts AFL-CIO to recognize his academic performance as a student at South High and his essay on Labor History.  

SHARE’D Stories 

We continue to put the spotlight on more SHARE members and their experience of life during the pandemic in our SHARE’D Stories project. Most recently we’ve heard from Cancer Center PCA’s Tammy Berry and Kellie Morton and Single Billing Office representative Laurie Abernathy

FSA Reminder 

Don’t forget that, through August 31, you can make modifications to your Flex Spending Account (FSA). Putting aside money in an FSA is a great way to save the money you would have paid on taxes on out-of-pocket medical expenses.