SHARE Contract Negotiations Update: Fingers Crossed…
Contract negotiations on Thursday, October 6, moved us closer to a deal. Both the SHARE Negotiating Team and the hospital management team made moves to get closer to each other. While we can never predict how long it will take to get to a final agreement, Jay Hagan, SHARE Co-President on the Memorial campus says, “I’m optimistic. I’ve been through a lot of contract negotiations that went worse than this one. We hope to finish very soon.”
SHARE Co-President from the University Campus Rita Caputo, says “SHARE has been a good partner to the hospital — we worked hard through COVID, we’re doing Unit Based Teams, we testified against MGB taking insured patients from our region — and in negotiations we’re expecting our hospital to recognize that that’s valuable.”
SHARE members are showing their support for negotiations by posting the signature poster in their work area, wearing red on Thursdays, and coming to SHARE events. That really shows management that all 3000 SHARE members are paying attention to negotiations and care a lot about the outcome. SHARE’s negotiating team can’t do it without you!
The next negotiating date is Thursday, October 13th.
Kelly Fournier, from the SHARE Negotiating Team adds, “This is all new to me, this is my first contract negotiation. I had no idea how much goes into it. I’m learning a lot. More importantly, I feel like I’m working on behalf of my co-workers and SHARE members across our hospitals to make UMass Memorial a better place to work.”
Next Steps: How YOU Can Help SHARE Get a Good Deal
We need to keep the momentum going. Let’s send another message to management about why good raises are important. SHARE wants to convey specifically why raises are important to you.
Click the button to download and print a poster. Then, name why you need a good raise: fill in the blank, take a picture with your poster, and email your photo to SHARE.
Share the poster with your co-workers, take single or group pictures, and send them back to us. If we get your photo by noon on Wednesday (October 12th) we can use it for negotiations on Thursday. It’s fine to take pictures in front of your heating oil tank, at the gas station, in the grocery store, anywhere you want – just make sure there’s are no patients in the pictures! We’ll also be using these photos on the SHARE website and our social media accounts.
It’s exciting to see so many SHARE members getting engaged in so many ways during this year’s negotiations. For more ways that you can keep updated, show your support, and be involved, check out the 2022 Negotiations section of the SHARE website.
