News Items that Matter to SHARE Members

These days, the broadcasts and news feeds are full of information that matter to SHARE. In case you missed them, here are a few particular things that we are keeping our eye on: 

Bonuses for Essential Workers

Governor Baker recently vetoed the part of the COVID Relief Spending Bill that would spend $460 million dollars on essential workers who worked in-person throughout COVID. It appears that Baker does want to deliver the money to essential workers, but he didn’t approve of the “red tape” the legislature had attached to the process. Early January should show us whether the legislature will over-ride Baker’s veto, and who will decide how this money is distributed. (Thank you, SHARE members who voiced your support for hazard pay to your legislators! Nice work!) Read more in the Boston Globe.

Money for Mental Health, Community Hospitals

The COVID Relief Spending Bill also dedicates $260 million for financially stressed hospitals, and $400 million for addiction treatment and related behavioral health services. UMass Memorial serves a large share of Medicaid patients, and increasing the number of Psych beds anywhere in the state could help with the logjam of patients in our ERs and Psych units. We will stay attentive to see how much of this money comes to our hospitals to benefit patients and SHARE members.  

News about the MGB Expansion

Rumor has it that the Mass General’s Independent Cost Analysis was coming out last week. Will it come out this week? We shall see. SHARE members have a big stake in the outcome of MGB’s plans – read more about it here. In addition, the bill that would protect community hospitals by giving the Massachusetts legislature a say about hospital expansions like this MGB proposal passed the House and is moving forward. Thanks to the SHARE members who let their voices be heard to their state reps and senators!   

Mass General Expansion Update

Last week, SHARE joined other members of the Coalition to Protect Community Care to talk with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office about Mass General Brigham’s (MGB) proposal to expand to Westborough, Westwood and Woburn, which we have reported about here previously.

The Attorney General’s office wanted to understand why each group objected to the MGB plan. SHARE Representative Janet Wilder spoke about our concern that a large MGB facility in Westborough would lead to layoffs at UMass Memorial due to the loss of patient volume. In addition, MGB is the most expensive care system in Massachusetts – if the cost of health insurance rises, that makes it more difficult for us to negotiate for raises and other benefits. The Mass Nurses Association representatives talked about MGB’s focus on wealthier communities that don’t need more options for healthcare. Representatives of the nonprofit organizations United Way and Centro talked about how much UMass Memorial has helped them provide services to their communities during the pandemic. Doctors representing independent private practices talked about how hard they are working to keep care affordable: Why would the state authorize the expansion of the most expensive care? A representative of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce talked about the effect of more expensive health insurance on small businesses.

“It seemed to me that the Attorney General’s Office really wanted to know how they could help,” said Janet Wilder. The next step is the completion of the independent cost analysis of the effect of MGB’s proposal, which we hope will evaluate the proposal’s impact on the cost of care and on equity. SHARE will continue to make our members’ voices heard in this process.

Addendum: Urge Congressional Support! (plus: More Member Spotlights)

Is the Red Button Broken?

It’s great to hear that so many of you are already reaching out to legislators to encourage federal support for front-line caregivers and for hospitals in COVID hotspots.

However! It’s also frustrating to hear that the link behind “the red button” hasn’t been working for some of you.

If that button doesn’t work on your browser, here is the direct link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-fund-the-front-lines-now.

It’s not yet clear to us why the red button doesn’t work on every computer. The link makes contacting your Senators and Congressional delegates easy. Right now is an important time for them to hear from all of us. Thank you for your diligence, and for keeping us posted.

Member Spotlights

SHARE member Sara Gonzalez writes, “We keep moving forward. . . . I just love my team.”

Our union is growing a beautiful collection of stories from the lives of SHARE members during the COVID-19 crisis. Check out these latest additions:

• Marnie Doyle (Virtual Ambassador Program)

• Vanessa Cadime (CNA)

• Sara Gonzalez (CNA/Patient Transport)

We’re looking forward to more. Thank you —as always, and especially during these difficult times — for sticking together to keep our hospital and our union strong.

Hazard Pay and Support for our Hospitals: SHARE Members Urge Funding from Congress

  Click This red button to help keep front-line workers

— including SHARE members —

safe & secure 

*please note: the above link seems not to work with the hospital’s default browser, Internet Explorer. SHARE members are reporting success with other browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and even smartphones.

SHARE Members Urge Funding from Congress for America’s Five Economic Essentials  

Through the above link, the AFSCME website creates an email to your Congressperson, and to the two Massachusetts senators. It’s easy. You can add to the suggested email or replace it with your thoughts.  

Many SHARE members are adding these two ideas:  

• I work in healthcare, and here’s why Congress should fund hazard pay for front-line workers.  

• Safety net hospitals in COVID-19 hotspot areas like ours need funding support.  

SHARE Encourages you to do this right now!  

Congress is currently considering another stimulus package to help Americans through the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re calling the bill “CARES 2.” AFSCME (SHARE’s parent union) and the AFL-CIO (the umbrella organization for unions across the country) are pushing Congress to support five priorities in that bill.  

America’s Five Economic Essentials  

All five priorities are focused on supporting working families, and the institutions they rely on. You can read more about these priorities here. We are hearing a lot of concern from SHARE members about 2 items that are included:     

Hazard pay (or “appreciation pay”) as well as PPE for front-line workers are included in the AFL-CIO’s priority #1: “Keep Frontline Workers Safe.” All essential workers need safety protections on the job, including personal protective equipment, training, testing, anti-retaliation protections, paid sick leave and hazard pay.     

Federal Support for Hospitals: Unions are pushing support for hospitals too – many are losing significant amounts of money as they drop everything to care for COVID patients. UMass Memorial is pushing Massachusetts Senators and Congresspeople to make sure that support for hospitals focuses on safety net hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots – like UMass Memorial hospitals. 

This situation has been amplified in Massachusetts: "The funding formulas that U.S. Health & Human Services has used to distribute the money – as well as the early cutoff dates the government used to assess the number of COVID-19 cases in a state – has meant that the commonwealth’s large surge in cases was not counted fully," according to the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association.

Thanks for your support, SHARE members!  

Unions Push for America’s Five Economic Essentials

SHARE’s parent union, AFSCME, along with the whole AFL-CIO, sent a letter to leaders of Congress to push for funding for the front line in the COVID-19 crisis. “America’s Five Economic Essentials” prioritizes the needs of working families over corporations.  

The main ideas are important for SHARE members, for Massachusetts, and across the country: 

1. Protecting front-line workers by providing increased access to PPE, testing, paid sick leave, hazard pay, etc. 

1. Keeping America Healthy by expanding access to health insurance, and providing financial support for hospitals 

1. Keeping workers employed and protecting pensions 

1. Providing state and local government funding to support schools and the postal service 

1. Hiring people to build infrastructure 

In the coming days, AFSCME is sending an email to all members asking us to write our members of Congress urging them to support the Five Essentials.  

To learn more now, you can read the full letter below. Keep your eyes peeled for an email from AFSCME!