Our new logo aims to remind our community that UMass Memorial works because SHARE members do.
It’s good news that the current COVID surge seems to be declining. However, we all know that doesn’t mean our hospital won’t continue to be extremely busy. Many SHARE members continue to work in departments that are strained and understaffed. One way our union is addressing that is at this week’s highly popular job fair.
As we head into a contract negotiating year, we are currently laying the ground work: getting ready for a survey of SHARE members, catching up with new people who haven’t yet signed a SHARE membership card, and revamping SHARE’s social media. You can support our union by liking the new SHARE Facebook page.
Kronos “Advance” Program: How Members Can Get Cash
SHARE pushed the hospital to find a way to get money to people faster than they were able to make paycheck corrections. We wish this “advance” system could have gotten set up sooner, but we’re still glad they are doing it. The program is designed to temporarily correct for the current problems since the Kronos errors cannot yet be fully resolved. (The advance should not be confused with grants such as the EASE program.)
SHARE members can apply again starting on Tuesday, January 25, 2022. The window closes at 4 pm on Friday, January 28, 2022. SHARE members can apply for $500, $1000, or $2000 salary advance. (See the bottom of this email for instructions for how to apply.)
For more information, including answers to questions that SHARE has heard from members about the Advance Program, read the full post.
UMass Memorial Answers SHARE Questions about COVID Health & Safety
SHARE Reps meet once a month from around the hospital to share what’s happening in their work areas, bringing the questions and concerns that they hear there. Some of the recent questions about health and safety would be of interest to many SHARE members, and we’ve rounded them up on our blog.
We’ve created this post that describes the recent changes to guidelines about rooming and exposure to COVID-positive patients on the nursing floors.
In a recent Townhall Meeting, it was stated that those UMass Memorial caregivers who’ve recently contracted COVID primarily contracted the disease in the community. We asked Dr. Robert Klugman, who oversees Employee Health about this. Read what Dr. Klugman has to say about how the hospital knows these employees weren’t infected at work.
Also, we put the following questions to UMass Memorial leader Dr. Kimi Kobayashi:
Yellow surgical masks: are they as safe as the blue ones? Is the hospital cutting corners?
Am I being told to wear the correct N95 mask?
Will the hospital limit visitors to clinics?
You can read Dr. Kobayashi’s answers in this post.
Incidentally, did you know that you can order free at-home COVID test kits to be delivered to your door?
Mass General Brigham Reveals “Independent” Cost Analysis
As part of its continued push to expand in central Massachusetts, consultants hired by MGB have prepared a cost analysis that paints an unsurprisingly positive view of the MGB’s proposal to expand into Central Massachusetts. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe recently printed a piece objecting to the expansion, “After failed China project, Mass General Brigham eyes growth at home.” The Department of Public Health is currently taking rebuttals to the MGB’s independent analysis. Read more . . .