SHARE Hosts COVID Vaccine Q&A with Dr. Kimi Kobayashi

Thursday, October 7th, Noon- 1:00 pm

—and—

Tuesday, October 14th, 4:30-5:30 pm

Dr. Kimi Kobayashi, Physician & UMass Memorial Chief Quality Officer

SHARE members are invited to virtual question & answer sessions with Dr. Kimi Kobayashi. He will be joining us to discuss the COVID vaccine. Dr. Kobayashi, a physician who specializes in internal medicine and drug safety, will answer questions from SHARE members about their concerns. This discussion will focus on the science of the vaccine, and of the disease itself.

You can join either session by clicking the red button above, or by using the Zoom login information at the end of this post.

get answers to your questions

If you have questions you would like Dr. Kobayashi to answer, please send them to SHARE in advance by email. We will provide them to him ahead of time so he can be prepared to answer. There may also be time during the sessions to take additional questions.

At these sessions, we won’t be talking about the process, or what happens if a SHARE member declines to get the COVID vaccine. These COVID Vaccine Info Meetings are to give SHARE members the opportunity to ask their medical and safety questions, and to hear the hospital’s response.

About the Vaccine Mandate

The SHARE leadership continues to negotiate with the hospital about the impact of its mandate on members. We expect the forthcoming Federal guidelines will override some of the ideas the hospital and the union have discussed, but our union maintains that an employee should not lose their livelihood as a result of their vaccination status, and that all SHARE members should be safe from COVID when they come to work.

Full Zoom Info

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Meeting ID: 871 3916 4533

Passcode: 965914

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SHARE Update about the COVID Vaccine Mandate

SHARE leaders are meeting with management to negotiate the impact of the UMass Memorial vaccine mandate on SHARE members. Below is more information about the on-going negotiations between SHARE and UMass Memorial about the vaccine mandate.

As you may know from related posts on the SHARE blog, including this previous post about negotiating the mandate, SHARE has made its interests clear: everyone should be able to come to the hospital safe from COVID, and SHARE members need to keep their jobs.

Waiting for Details of the Federal Executive Order about Healthcare Workers Vaccination Mandate

The hospital expects to get clearer information from the government sometime in October about the rules attached to the executive order mandating vaccines in healthcare institutions that get funding from Medicaid and Medicare.  These guidelines could override some of the ideas we had been discussing – too early to tell. Federal guidelines may not, for example, allow employers to have a frequent testing alternative to being vaccinated, or rules could make clear if employees who work from home are included in the vaccine mandate.

Exemptions & Accommodations

The hospital has made available religious and medical exemption forms on The Hub.

The exemptions are a 2-step process:

1.       First the application will be copied with no name or job title so that they are anonymous, and then sent to either the religious or medical exemption committee. The committees will have representatives of Human Resources, Employee Health, Office of the General Counsel, Operations, Infection Control, and a chaplain for the religious exemption committee. The religious exemption committee will look to determine if receiving a vaccine violates a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance. The committees will decide whether or not to grant each exemption.

2.       If a caregiver is granted an exemption, then their case is then reviewed individually to decide if their department can grant an accommodation for them to work without the vaccine. The Infection Control department is creating a policy about what accommodations are acceptable in which kinds of situations. It sounds like the accommodation decisions could be different depending on how much contact the caregiver has with other people: for employees who work with patients, those who work in an office, or those who work-from-home. For example, Infection Control could decide that wearing a mask without being vaccinated is not enough protection against the Delta variant for the patient contact involved for that kind of job. Management says that if the risk is too great to co-workers or patients with the employee remaining unvaccinated, the employee will be allowed to consider vacant positions elsewhere in the hospital where their exemption may be accommodated. They say that if there are no other positions available and the caregiver remains unvaccinated, there will be a disciplinary process that will ultimately end in separation from employment.

SHARE’s position is that it’s good that each situation will be looked at individually, and that the SHARE member should be involved in discussions about their options, with help from a SHARE Rep. SHARE’s position is that if there are no other options, including testing (see next section), then the “separation from employment” should be considered a lay-off, since the requirements of the job have changed.

Testing and Masking as an Alternative to the Vaccine?

The SHARE team’s position is that we are trying to find an alternative to the COVID vaccine for SHARE members who really don’t want it, so that no one loses their job over this.

The SHARE team asked for the hospital’s position about whether there could be an alternative that could keep people safe while allowing SHARE members to decide not to get vaccinated, such as frequent COVID testing. They told us that currently the hospital does not think that frequent testing is practical for large numbers of employees, nor is it enough protection against the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. We need to see what the executive order says about this. The negotiations continue.

The hospital has laid out more precautions for anyone who is unvaccinated as of November 1st.

The Staffing Crisis

The SHARE team raised the possibility of a COVID vaccine mandate causing employees to leave because they do not want to be vaccinated against COVID. Many areas are already short-staffed, and people are exhausted. SHARE members are afraid that unvaccinated co-workers will leave and they will have to work even shorter. In response, management representatives described work that the Talent Acquisition department is doing to hire new people, but acknowledged that a vaccine mandate could make the staffing problem worse. They said that senior management believes that protecting the patients through vaccination of caregivers is so important that they are willing to take the risk of losing employees by mandating the vaccine. And the executive order may mean that the hospital doesn’t have much choice – again, we shall see.

Work from Home Exemption from the Vaccine?

Some SHARE members who work from home have suggested they should have an exemption from the mandate, because they don’t come into physical contact with co-workers or patients so they cannot spread the disease. Management said that if work-from-home employees get COVID and can’t work, that has an impact on the hospital’s ability to provide services to patients – especially in another COVID surge and staff is stretched even thinner. Management thinks that the federal mandate will probably apply to all employees of employers that bill Medicare or Medicaid – regardless of whether the employees are on-site or remote. Again, we shall see.

More to Negotiate

The most frequent questions that SHARE leaders hear are:

• Are the vaccines safe?

• What happens if I don’t get vaccinated?

SHARE is compiling a list of questions from SHARE members about the safety of the COVID vaccines. We believe that the hospital should provide answers to people’s questions and concerns. We are working to set up ways to get members’ questions answered, in addition to the material already published on the Hub.

SHARE and UMass Memorial will continue to discuss what will happen to SHARE members who do not get vaccinated. As we have said, partly this depends on the details of the executive order. SHARE is advocating that the mandate deadlines be pushed back so that SHARE members and department can make better-informed decisions about the vaccine, exemptions, accommodations, and staffing, and so that we can continue to talk through issues such as cultural mistrust and structural racism.

We will continue to negotiate, and we will continue to keep you posted. We very much appreciate how many SHARE members have engaged in this difficult process, and how many of you have thoughtfully laid out your interests. If you have questions or concerns, including issues that you would like to see raised with management, please email us.

How Do I Find My 2021 Raise?

SHARE members will soon receive the final of the four raises negotiated under our current contract. The Year 4 raises (effective 9/26/21) will work out to roughly 3%, or better, for each member through one of two scenarios, whichever is greater:

• A 2.95% raise (This is made up of two parts: a 1% Across-the-Board raise (“ATB”), PLUS platform movement of 1.93%, which together compound to equal 2.95%.)

— or —

• a $0.60/hour minimum raise. 

Read on for more detail about the raise, which includes tools to help you calculate your own.

SHARE members have made consistent financial progress — including raises every year — during the more than twenty years of our union’s existence. With each contract, SHARE aims to provide consistent, predictable raises, and we expect the negotiating team will seek to maintain that standard when SHARE and UMass Memorial re-enter contract negotiations next year.

Don’t forget! Raise time can be a great time to set aside more money in your 401(k), and get even more benefit from the employer’s match. If you have questions, or would like help calculating your raise, please call or email the SHARE office.

WHAT ARE PAY GRIDS?

Our employer uses a common form of pay structure to arrange the hourly pay rates for SHARE members. The pay grid sets a minimum and maximum hourly rate, otherwise known as a “min” and a “max,” for employees in all SHARE job classifications.

Over the years, SHARE and UMass Memorial have worked to make the pay grids transparent and predictable. The pay grid is designed as a series of “platforms.” These platforms are intended to recognize a person’s work experience in the field, and to help her make financial progress as she grows in her job. In our contract agreements, we have agreed to ensure that each SHARE member makes no less than what’s deemed appropriate for her years of experience.

WHAT ARE THE TWO PARTS OF THE RAISE?

The SHARE raise includes two components:

• the “Across-the-Board” (or ATB), and

• the “Platform Movement”

The ATB is provided to all SHARE members; it’s the part of the raise that’s designed to keep employees from losing ground against inflation and the market. The Platform Movement is designed to recognize service to our hospital, and to allow SHARE members to make consistent financial progress.

If you’re working to understand your raise by looking at the pay grid, you can see the ATB raise by moving across a platform from your current pay. To see the additional Platform movement, you would then move down a platform. (See “How to Calculate My Raise,” above.)

Click the button at the top of the page — or this image — to view, download, or print the full worksheet to calculate your raise.

The button below links to the pay rate grids for all SHARE positions

WHAT IS THE “FLOOR” DESCRIBED IN THE RAISE?

Most SHARE members would be happy with a one percent raise . . . if their base pay was a million dollars per year. When raises are set as a percentage of base pay, it disadvantages the person who makes a lower hourly rate. To offset this, we’ve made an agreement that the smallest raise that a SHARE member can get is 60 cents per hour. For some SHARE members, 60 cents equated to a 4.5% raise.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY RAISE IS 2.95% OR IF IT’S THE $.60/HOUR FLAT RATE?

It’s whichever number is bigger for you, based on your current pay rate.

WHAT IS “MAX?”

If you’ve worked in a SHARE job for very many years, you may know that the SHARE union and our employer have had different beliefs about members’ “maximum” pay amount. In our 2016 Contract, we negotiated a new kind of compromise about the Max, one that has been more satisfying among seasoned SHARE members. We’ll describe more about that in the following answers. Now, the Max applies only to new-hires to SHARE; it’s the highest amount a new member can be paid, regardless of their prior experience.

WHAT IS THE “MAX CAP?”

In our 2016 Contract, we reached an agreement with management that changed how Max would be handled. We both agreed that SHARE members could have the full raise applied to their base, even if they were beyond the Max. We made a new compromise, which set a new, higher limit on the amount that a member could make in her hourly rate. This new limit is called the “Max Cap.”

As SHARE’s agreement with the hospital describes: “The max cap is a hard stop.” It’s the highest amount that an employee can make in her base rate. Of course, from SHARE’s perspective, the amount of the Max Cap will need to increase. We will negotiate future increases to the Max Cap with the hospital.

WHAT IS THE “LONGEVITY ZONE?”

Although this term is not in our contract, it is how we in SHARE refer to the difference between the Max and the Max Cap. There are no pay platforms between Max and the Max Cap. No employees are hired or slotted above the Max. However, SHARE members whose raises fall into this range have their entire raise applied to their base pay rate.

WHY IS THERE A MAX?

Typically in this kind of structure, once an employee reaches the top of her grade, she’s ineligible to get an increase to her base rate beyond usual standard-of-living increases. There’s a limit to how much an employer will have to pay each hourly employee. This obviously helps employers project and cap their labor costs over time, and frustrates employees. The “max” implies that, at some point, the skills and experience that an employee brings to work reach a limit.

WHAT DOES SHARE THINK ABOUT MAX?

SHARE maintains that there’s ongoing, continuous value to the experience each member brings to our hospital. We believe that an employee’s value to our hospital grows over time. The longer a person works in our hospital, the more relationships they can develop, and the more institutional memory they carry. There’s no limit to that. So why would that not be reflected in ongoing raises?

HOW DID “MAX” WORK BEFORE?

Before we invented the Max Cap (i.e. when there was only a max), employees at the Max would receive the negotiated ATB increase to the max hourly rate. The remaining amount of any negotiated increase (i.e. platform movement) was paid out as a bonus. Although the money didn’t all go into the member’s base pay and compound over time, they did receive the raise. It was the best compromise we could reach at the time.

When a member was approaching the max (i.e. their ATB and/or platform increase would result in their pay rate surpassing the max), their pay rate stopped at the max and any remaining increase was paid in a lump sum.

HOW DOES THE MAX CAP WORK?

The arrangement we previously made regarding Max now applies to the Max Cap.

• When a member is already at the max cap at the time of any ATB and/or platform increase, their pay rate shall increase only to the extent that the max cap itself increases; any increase beyond the max cap will be paid in a lump sum.

• When a member is approaching the max cap (i.e. their ATB and/or platform increase would result in their pay rate surpassing the max cap), their pay rate will stop.

Frontline Leader Spotlight: Tameka McDaniel

Tameka McDaniel served as the most recent SHARE/UMass Memorial Frontline Leader Fellow. She works for our hospital as a Financial Clearance Specialist in Insurance Verification. SHARE developed the Frontline Leader Fellowship program to provide SHARE leaders with an opportunity to become more deeply oriented with SHARE’s approach to organizing people and solving problems. Fellows spend a month with the SHARE staff, accompanying organizers to meetings and events and helping to keep in touch with members, as well as receiving training in topics such as de-escalation, process improvement, and time management. Tameka describes her own work in the hospital and with our union here (as transcribed by Rafael Rojas) . . .

Creating Unity through the Union

To prioritize the quality of care that we can provide to our patients is one of the central aspects of the fellowship program with SHARE. It was through this fellowship program that I was able to finally leave my own little bubble within the UMass Memorial system and become a part of the entire hospital and network of workers that make up the different departments of our services for patients. I work in an office that is not even on a UMass Memorial hospital campus. This fellowship gave me an opportunity to go into the hospital each week. This was time that I would spend meeting workers from different departments who I had perhaps talked to over the phone or sent an email to already. I got to see so many new faces and build new relationships. Slowly, I even became aware of the problems and challenges that individual employees or entire departments would face. We all face similar problems that take different forms and come at different times. Whether it’s a department that is short staffed, an employee who is working too many hours, or issues with training, these problems are hospital-wide. To see this firsthand, and to see how the employees will try to work with SHARE and management to overcome these issues as they arise, the prioritization of the quality of our care was evident. This fellowship allowed me to become a part of these improvement systems and to learn what it takes to fix a problem from start to end. This fellowship showed me that even in a divided and siloed system, we can work together to help each other. Here at SHARE, we support each other, and we come together to make things better. That’s what a union is supposed to be – it is the meaning of the word itself.

Learning About Negotiation, Every Day

SHARE worked closely with the fellows to provide different exercises to help us better understand and work through various problems at the hospital. We recently finished one of our weekly “Lakeside Learning” sessions where we were given a very in-depth role-playing exercise. We were given information beforehand to help us understand the scenario at hand – interest-based bargaining for a teacher's union. To go through this exercise, some of us were placed on the union side, while others were told to take on the role of management. It was a lot of fun to watch them go back and forth and take on a persona that is so out of their character. By the end of this exercise, we had come to an agreement. After a lot of fighting, after a lot of genuine frustration on both ends, we were able to come to a compromise that emphasized our interests. We came to realize that what both sides wanted so badly was the same thing, and it was all within reach through proper communication and a little bit of patience... I might have jumped the gun a couple of times without having all the information and just automatically, you know, tried to stick up for that a person on my team. We all left the session with many tips and tricks to help us maneuver through these difficult situations while also making sure that everything is talked about that needs to be addressed.

My time with this fellowship is something that I will hold near and dear to my future with Memorial Hospital and SHARE. I was recently nominated to be an E-Board member, so as I take that next step, I have made it very clear to SHARE that they’re not getting rid of me just yet. I have told them that I am going to inject myself into any aspect of helping and organizing that is going on in the hospital. I feel very lucky to have been allowed this opportunity, and that the timing to make such a commitment worked out well. I still remember the day that I became a rep, and how Will Erickson had scouted me out to get involved before I even became a SHARE member. When he first told me of the fellowship program that they were going to launch, I was not yet ready to do it. My department was short-staffed, and I did not want to leave my team with more work. Fortunately, I have a great relationship with my management, and they immediately recognized the value of what this program could offer to workers and their departments. They told me, ‘Tameka, if this is something that you think will help you, and will help you improve our department, then please take the time to do it.’ Eventually, SHARE and my management were able to work closely to figure out a schedule that would not put too much of a strain on our staff. I am excited to fully return to my team, and I’m excited for others to take on this fellowship and learn everything that I did. I will always miss my weekly routine of going into the hospital and seeing who we could help and who we could talk to, but I now know that I can make as much of an impact through my individual role at the hospital.

A Delicate Balance in the nicu

My role in the hospital is to make sure that all the patients that come in through the emergency room are properly insured, and that their insurance information is properly recorded. Currently, I have been assigned to work specifically with mothers with newborns that are kept in the hospital. I make sure that everything is insured so they don't get bills and the hospital gets paid and everybody is happy, and you know everyone gets paid for their good work and patients don't have to worry about missing a bill. When a mother has a newborn child that is sick and in the NICU, the last thing they’re going to be thinking about is whether their insurance coverage has been filled out properly. When I first call these patients, it is important for me to be very sensitive and cautious about how I get all this information from them. I do not want to add any additional stress onto what a situation that is already highly sensitive.

I was originally a CNA before taking on this separate role at the hospital, so I am familiar with patient care. I know how to deal with patients hands on, so that's why it's easy for me to, in the background, be very sensitive to them while also getting the job done. To be mindful of something so simple can relieve a lot of stress for patients down the line. Whenever I get the call that a patient has their baby in the NICU I will typically give the mother a few days to get settled into the challenge that they’re going through. It is sometimes impossible for a mother to understand the questions that I would have to ask them when their child is going through something that they might not understand. It is a very difficult balance to maintain, because at the end of the day, if we do not get the payments through the insurance companies, and the insurance companies do not get their payments, then the whole system would fall apart. I try my best to make the patients feel as if the insurance is not what matters to us, because at the end of the day, it's not. What matters to us at the hospital is to do everything we can to provide the highest quality of care to our patients. I want them to feel that when they get a call from me.

Taking Care of Patients & Taking Care of Ourselves

More than ever before, because of the pandemic, we had to take care of one another this year. We had to make sure that no one was being overworked, underappreciated, or left without any support here at the hospital. By the end of the fellowship, I came to understand that the workers must be taken care of, just as we take care of our patients with such high standards. What it boils down to is that the patients must be taken care of, and the patients cannot be taken care of if the workers are not taken care of too. It's about making sure that our people are cared for because, you know at the end of the day, these people are sent out into the world to care for others in whatever fashion it is. Whether it's health care, whether it's education, or anything else that focuses on providing a selfless service to others, you can't expect them to do their best if they're not taking care of too. They have to be taken care of too.

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To read more about her experience working during the pandemic, check out Tameka’s SHARE’d Spotlight story.

SHARE Negotiations Update about the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Update 9/24/21 — Please note this follow-up post about negotiations. You can also find on the SHARE website the full roundup of posts about the Covid Vaccine & Mandate.

A group of SHARE Executive Board members and Organizers met with UMass Memorial Labor Relations (HR) on Friday afternoon for our first formal negotiations about the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. We covered a lot of ground, mostly to understand management’s position and to explain SHARE’s interests to hospital leadership. These discussions will continue, as we try to come to an agreement about how the proposed vaccine mandate will affect SHARE members.

SHARE has made its position clear:

• We want to keep SHARE members, co-workers, and patients safe from COVID.

• We don’t want anyone to lose their job.

It’s not yet clear how much the new federal announcement about vaccine mandates will need to change our discussions.

Most SHARE members have already received the COVID vaccine – we think the number is between 75-80%. (We have asked management to provide us with that data.) Some of those SHARE members support a vaccine mandate for everyone. Some of those SHARE members got vaccinated, but don’t support making it mandatory. Other SHARE members don’t (or don’t yet) want to get vaccine and don’t think that the hospital should be able to require it to work here. Our union is trying find a solution that keeps people safe and prevents people from losing their jobs – but it is not easy to balance all the different points of view.

Management described that the hospital has gotten many calls from patients saying that they won’t come to UMass Memorial if their caregiver has not been vaccinated. This is part of what is driving them to push for a vaccine mandate.

Exemptions

The SHARE team urged the hospital to get the applications out for employees who want to apply for an exemption from the vaccine mandate.

Testing and Masking as an Alternative to the Vaccine?

The SHARE team’s position is that we are trying to find an alternative to the vaccine for SHARE members who really don’t want it, so that no one loses their job over this.

What about the new Executive Order requiring hospitals to mandate the vaccine?

President Biden issued an executive order last Thursday which says that hospitals who get money from Medicaid and Medicare, as UMass Memorial does, must have COVID vaccine mandate of some kind for employees. (We are waiting to hear more detailed guidelines about this. This is different from the requirement for all employers with more than 100 employees that they must have a vaccine mandate but can have a frequent COVID testing alternative.) We are not going to see the specific rules from the federal government until next month. It is possible that there will be no testing alternative allowed in the required mandates. (The mandate for federal employees used to include a testing alternative, but that is now being eliminated by executive order.)

The Staffing Crisis

The SHARE team raised the issue of a vaccine mandate causing employees to leave because they do not want to be vaccinated against COVID. So many areas are already short-staffed, and people are exhausted. SHARE members are afraid that more than a few co-workers will leave and they will have to work even shorter.

Work from Home Exemption from the Vaccine?

Some SHARE members who work from home have suggested an exemption from the mandate. We described to management that since they don’t come into physical contact with co-workers or patients, they cannot spread the disease to patients.

Next Steps

SHARE and UMass Memorial will continue to negotiate, and we will keep you posted.

More Time

The current vaccine deadline is coming quickly – November 1st to get the first shot. Some SHARE members need more time to get answers to their questions and make this decision. We urge the hospital to slow this process down enough to make it go as well as possible.

Questions and Answers

SHARE leaders hear lots of questions and concerns about how well the vaccines work and how safe they are from some SHARE members. The SHARE team asked for a process for SHARE members to be heard about their concerns, as well as a way for the hospital to answer members’ questions.

If you want ask questions, or hear the hospital’s point of view for yourself, tune into the System Town Hall Meeting on September 15 at 12:15 pm. Check out the Hub for more details.

This Is Difficult, but Let’s Treat Each Other with Kindness and Respect 

Lots of people are tired, and everyone is frustrated that COVID is still here and getting worse again. We have more disagreement among SHARE members on this topic than on most. Building the strength of the union, and of our SHARE community, means being able to talk through difficult subjects – we can disagree about ideas, but be respectful to each other as people. COVID has really showed us how connected we are to each other.

Get Rewards from UMass Memorial for Volunteering

Volunteers are eligible for a variety of prizes, including up to 250 MyHealth Matters points, and — for anyone volunteering at an activity improving a social determinant of health — one of these snazzy yellow tee shirts!

SHARE members take care of Central Massachusetts every day at work. But we know that that’s not all you do for our community, and we’re excited to see UMass Memorial’s Anchor Mission program recognizing those efforts.

UMass Memorial wants to make sure you know you are eligible for rewards for the volunteer work that you do. They also aim to highlight at least 500 Caregiver volunteers in FY21 who are signed up or have already volunteered during the fiscal year. 

Want to know more?

Check out this list of resources and information from UMass Memorial:

• Policy, including rewards that are available 

• Volunteer sign up -  caregivers can sign up for their activity interest

• Volunteer opportunities for those looking to volunteer in the future, updated monthly

• Register activity – Caregivers can register their volunteering activity they are already are doing or have done to take advantage of the rewards available

• Volunteering Photos on the Hub!

Would you like help setting up a volunteering opportunity? 

UMass Memorial’s Anchor Mission program would be happy to help you or your department set up a volunteering activity! Email us and tell us what we can help set up for you.

Did you know that the volunteering you are currently doing could qualify for a free t-shirt or MyHealth Matters Points?  Are you…      

· Visiting residents of a nursing home?

· Sorting food at a local food pantry?

· Organizing a food drive?

· Helping community youth with their homework?

· Participating in a home building project?

· Advocating for social justice causes?

· Spending your time at a free care clinic?

Remember to Spread the Word!

We need your help recruiting our army of Anchor Mission volunteers. Help us spread the word and remember to bring up Anchor Mission at your next huddle!

Help us reach our goal of 500 new Anchor Mission volunteers by September 30.
New volunteers can learn more and register here.

Interested in signing up for a volunteering event? Here are a few options . . .

Worcester Free Care Collaborative - Provides free care to uninsured and under-insured patients, many of whom are recent immigrants to central Massachusetts. They also provide case management and work to connect patients to long -term health care options.  They currently need interpreters for Portuguese and Spanish. They offer free clinics each weekday evening in Worcester.  See their website for more information.  The Collaborative particularly needs help at St. Anne’s in Shrewsbury on Tuesday evenings at 6 pm and at St. Peter’s in Worcester on Thursday evenings at 6 pm. The clinic at St. Peter’s could also use physician, nurse, medical assistant and non-medical volunteers. The level of commitment can range from once a week to once a month.

If you are interested in volunteering sign up here and choose "Health & Medicine" as the volunteer activity.

Habitat for Humanity - ReStore – Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores sell donated new and gently used home furnishings and building materials, and are open to the public. The proceeds from all items sold at the ReStore go to funding Habitat's mission to build homes, community, and hope while keeping over 600 tons of usable materials out of local landfills. Volunteer tasks at the ReStore consist of donations processing, customer service and sales floor merchandising. From cleaning, testing, and pricing donations, to helping happy customers out to their cars with their purchases, volunteers help do it all!  The Worcester ReStore is located at 640 Lincoln Street and is open Tuesday through Saturday. Learn more. 

Regional Environmental Council, Worcester - The Regional Environmental Council is currently hosting weekly community volunteer hours at their Main South farm. Learn how to plant and harvest in our UMass Community Concept Garden here! See their volunteer page and the sign up form for more information.

The UMass Memorial Covid Vaccine Mandate & SHARE: Frequently Asked Questions

9/3/21 Correction: SHARE estimates the vaccination rate of the membership to be roughly 75% (not 70%, as originally published).

What is going on with UMass Memorial’s vaccine mandate? 

On August 4, UMMH announced their policy of a vaccine mandate in an email from Eric Dickson to all employees. COVID-19 vaccine mandates are all over the news right now – most Massachusetts hospitals will require it for their workers. SHARE will negotiate with UMMH about the impact on SHARE members. We don’t know yet what the results of those negotiations will be. 

What is SHARE’s position on the mandate? 

• We want all SHARE members and patients to be as safe from COVID-19 as possible.

• We don’t want any SHARE members to lose their jobs.

COVID vaccinations are a complicated and challenging topic for our union – not all of us agree on the path forward. Many SHARE members are already vaccinated against COVID-19 – we think the number is about 70%. Some of them support the mandate, others chose vaccination but don’t support a mandate. Some SHARE members want to know that people they work next to are vaccinated. Some SHARE members want to wait to decide about getting vaccinated. Other SHARE members say that that they can’t or won’t get vaccinated due to religious, medical, or ethical reasons. 

SHARE will, as always, work collaboratively to negotiate the impacts of this decision and to elevate the diversity of voices throughout this process. We believe that UMMH should talk respectfully with those who are against getting vaccinated, listen to the concerns, and come to agreements that everyone can live with. UMass Memorial should provide answers to questions that SHARE members have, as well as easy access to the vaccine for those that want it. If SHARE members are not willing to get the vaccine, then we want to work out a solution together that both keeps people safe and keeps SHARE members employed. 

What is SHARE doing about the mandate? 

We will negotiate. As in all negotiations, we will not know what the outcome will be until we are done. UMMH acknowledges that they need to negotiate about the effects of the mandate on members.

SHARE members who object to the vaccine have raised a number of issues: 

• Some SHARE members feel strongly about their right to decide for themselves whether they want to get the COVID vaccine.

• Some SHARE members would prefer to wear masks and do weekly or daily testing if they are not vaccinated as other employers are doing.

• Some SHARE members have said they want more time to think this through and make their own choice.

• Some SHARE members who work from home say that the mandate should not apply to them because they are not exposed to other caregivers or to patients.

• Some SHARE members are worried about possible side effects of the vaccine, now or down the road.

• Some SHARE members are asking about religious or medical exemptions.

• Some SHARE members have strong personal beliefs against taking the vaccine that may not be covered by the religious exemption policy.

SHARE has received the following recommendations from members about how to approach the vaccine question: 

• Case management: If a SHARE member is opposed to taking the vaccine, we want to work together with HR to address their individual situation with them.

• Staffing contingency plans: especially in areas with pre-existing staffing issues, we want to hear what departments plan to do if they lose staff because of the mandate, or if SHARE members are out sick after receiving the vaccine.

• Vaccine access: We want on-site vaccine clinics or work-time release for people who agree to get the vaccine.

• Information Exchange: We want to make sure UMMMHC makes itself available to answer a wide range of questions regarding the vaccine mandate. Additionally, it's important that we have a process for making sure that UMMMHC hears the wide range of perspectives SHARE members hold on the mandation.

• Work from home: If someone is working entirely remotely, they should be able to be exempted.

How are Other Workplaces Handling Employee Vaccinations?

The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association endorses vaccine mandates for all Massachusetts hospitals. Hospitals also face pressure from patients and the public to minimize the chance of Covid transmission. Still, some hospitals around the country continue to keep vaccinations elective, and eleven states have banned workplace COVID vaccine mandates entirely.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities are not alone in weighing decisions to require vaccinations for their employees. UMass Medical School has already announced a plan, including that all of their employees must get at least the first shot of the vaccine, and submit proof, by 9/7/21. This includes people who work mostly or entirely from home. UMMS says that staff who miss the established deadlines will have their badges deactivated, must use their own time to be paid, and may be disciplined. Those not complying by December 31st will be terminated. Our sister SHARE Union continues to work to negotiate with UMMS about their policy.

Members of the US military, federal employees and contractors, and nursing home staff who serve Medicare and Medicaid patients are required to be vaccinated, too. Additionally, MassLive reports that, “National companies like Disney [which has reached a vaccine mandate agreement with their largest union] are requiring guests to wear masks indoors while Facebook and Google have decided to mandate vaccines.” Some groups, such as Chicago’s police union, oppose such mandates, while others, such as the National Education Association, endorse the mandates. (You can read more in our previous posts). The specifics about what the mandate means varies from place to place.

Can an employer legally require me to be vaccinated? 

It looks like the answer is probably yes. Courts are ruling that the COVID vaccine can be mandated by employers, even though some versions are still only approved by emergency use authorization. It also appears that the Supreme Court has been unwilling to jump in to stop these mandates. There will probably be a lot more court cases, but so far they all seem to be going one way. In addition, the FDA has begun to given permanent approval to the COVID vaccines, and there is a lot more case law (such as that for the flu vaccine) saying that employers can mandate approved vaccines. Just last week, “a federal judge . . . dismissed a lawsuit challenging a requirement that students at the University of Massachusetts campuses in Boston and Lowell be fully vaccinated against the corona virus in order to return to campus.”

This pro-mandate piece on CNN rounds up a number of other legal precedents which suggest the highest courts will uphold the constitutionality of a mandate; conversely, this piece in the Boston Globe cites other precedents regarding “bodily integrity” that might overrule a mandate. We are continuing to follow this question. 

What do you think? 

SHARE would like to hear from you about what you think about the COVID vaccine. If you have an opinion, a personal story, or a question you would like SHARE and/or UMass Memorial management to hear, please send us an email at: share.comment@theshareunion.org 

Getting Help with Rent, Utilities, and Moving Costs

The AFL-CIO has been working to make sure that union members know that renters and landlords can apply for money from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance program. In case you don’t get emails from the AFL-CIO directly, please know that you can get help with rent, utility bills and even moving costs. They write:

If you’re having trouble making rent payments, you’re not alone.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for renters and landlords to cover housing costs. The CDC eviction moratorium ended on July 31, so renters are worried about catching up on past-due rent and facing eviction.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has an Emergency Rental Assistance program. The funds are being distributed by state and local organizations to their communities. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a tool to find a program in your community.

You don’t have to be behind on rent to get assistance. Some programs offer help with future rent. Local programs may also offer help with utility bills and moving costs.

Find your local program and apply for rental assistance now.

Blog Digest: Pedi Clinic Spotlight, Child Tax Credit, Covid Vaccine Mandates, MGB Expansion, eLearning

UBT Spotlight: Pediatric Clinic

The Unit Based Team in the Pediatric Primary Care Clinic has implemented several ideas that make their work better, saving wasted time and improving communication. In the process, they have, among other things, developed ways to expedite hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments. Read more about what this enthusiastic group has been doing, with an interview of UBT Co-Leads Jen McRell and Maureen Guzzi.

UMass Memorial eLearning 

Our hospital is using a new version of eLearning this year in order to keep compliant with federal regulations. Because of the additional time required to complete this year’s Annual Required Education, UMass Memorial now allows employees to do the eLearning from home. Some SHARE members have found portions of the eLearning difficult because it tests knowledge that they haven’t previously had to know for their jobs. We would like to know about your experience so that we can work to better help the hospital improve its eLearning program. Learn more, and let us know what you think . . .

Covid Vaccine Mandate 

UMass Memorial does not currently require employees to receive the Covid vaccine while it remains under Emergency Use Authorization. But that could change. Read more . . . 

Federal Child Tax Credit 

In response to the pandemic, unions pressed the government for financial relief provided by the American Rescue Plan, including the newly-enacted Child Tax Credit. Learn here how the Credit might affect you and your family. You can also calculate how much you can expect to receive using the free AFSCME Child Tax Credit Calculator. 

Mass General Brigham Expansion Update 

SHARE leaders and other members of the Coalition to Protect Community Care met recently with representatives from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office to discuss the ways that the MGB’s proposed expansion could undermine health equity in Central Massachusetts and put good healthcare jobs at risk. After the session, SHARE staff organizer Janet Wilder said, “It seemed to me that the Attorney General’s Office really wanted to know how they could help.” Read more . . . 

UBT Spotlight: Pediatric Clinic

Pedi Clinic Unit Based Team (left-right): Pat Labbe, Anne Taylor, Maureen Guzzi (UBT Management Co-Lead), Jen McRell (UBT SHARE Co-Lead), Marnie Doyle (joining the team on the phone), Cassie Steele, Marie Manna (UBT Coach), and Joanne Hunt

The Pediatric Clinic Unit Based Team (UBT) is a group of enthusiastic, thoughtful staff with a good sense of humor. In the discussions we’ve had on various topics, it’s clear that they care about their patients and their families . . . which, of course, leads to thinking about patient satisfaction as a high priority. The UBT has done valuable work over these past 3-4 years in taking on projects that improve work processes that benefit the patients, the staff, and the hospital. Some of these have involved streamlining processes like ordering a urine sample, paperwork needed, and communication within teams. All of this work helps to save wasted time, increase efficiency, and leads to more satisfied patients and staff. One particular project that helps the hospital was improving the wrap-up process in order to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars more in payments in a timely fashion.

I have very much enjoyed coaching this UBT, and - since they are so enthusiastic (read, “passionately talk a lot”) — I’ve had to use my coach’s time-out signal more frequently with them than with some other UBTs. While all members are enthusiastic, they each understand and appreciate the need to listen closely to one another which has built strong, respectful relationships. Their “enthusiasm” is a visible indicator of their commitment to their work, the patients, and each other.

—Marie Manna, UBT Coach

Jen McRell and Maureen Guzzi: Pedi Clinic UBT Co-Leads

Interview by Anna Weick, 2/23/21

J: In the Beginning, we didn’t know what to make of the Unit Based Team. But within a few weeks, people started feeling comfortable enough to come to us with ideas and things we could work on in the meetings. It did take a few weeks to get it up and running and get people on board with it. 

M: So, Jen and I have been together on this since the get-go. The UBT project was presented to the managers and we sent it out for volunteers. We tried to gauge interest and see who wanted to join. I had a core number -- not a huge number -- of people interested. Jen was one of the people who came to me and said she was interested, and she became my co-chair. The people who are currently on it have pretty much the people who have been on it since the get-go. We have had some people leave, and we’ve brought a few new people in. But for the most part, it has been led by the same people and same team who were interested in the beginning. While we might get more interest now, we encourage people to speak if they want to join, or to give us suggestions. Like Jen said, we originally met about almost 3 years ago. We met, we defined, with our coach Marie, who comes to all our meetings -- who guided us to where we wanted to go.

The staff went back out to talk to the other staff. Within a couple of weeks we had about 20 ideas when we first started this. We all met together and put the ideas in order of priority, and then we started to tackle them. We recorded it, took minutes, posted it on our UBT board in our lunch room area. We went through about 12 of those 20 things in the first year, putting them in order, starting one and seeing it through. Some of the stuff over the course of the year, it self-corrected. So the next year we talked about the next big three projects we wanted to take on. We tackled those three projects -- we probably weren’t as ambitious as when we originally started because we had a lot of small projects to go through. 

This last year we just met again, we looked again at the True North metrics for the organization, and we tailored what we want to accomplish around those. 

J: And then Covid happened . . . everyone got deployed for a while. 

M: Coming back we learned that -- reuniting back together was really challenging for us, so we had to spend some of our time on rebuilding the team. It was hard during deployment. 

J: And then going into new roles, with coming back -- now there are telehealth visits, and things not in person. It’s a whole new work environment that a lot of us weren’t used to. So, getting together and coming up with rules for that too. 

M: Normally they knew what they did every day. They did the same things pretty much every day. While you say you want to implement something new, we found the challenge is, well, you can’t just say ‘go do the telehealth,’ because no one knew how to do a telehealth. And then, when we thought we knew how to do the telehealth, the people doing the telehealth realized that there were inconsistencies in information that families and patients were getting. 

J: So we came up with a script for that to walk people through it.

M: That’s the kind of thing we talk about in our UBT meetings. When we started, we met every single week, up until about 6 months ago. Now we meet every other week. For the first two years we met every week for a hour. We always made it an important meeting, we only cancelled one or two meetings in the past 2 1/2 years. We try to say this is important and let’s at least connect. In the last couple months we are trying to keep the meeting to a half an hour -- we’re struggling a bit but it’s in appreciation of other employees’ schedules being disrupted by people being gone for a full hour.

Workflow things -- our clinic is huge, we started some of the efforts on the biggest thing that we all voted on -- something on Jen’s side, where at the end of the night, whoever was the last employee, they were getting stuck with a lot of responsibilities like 20 urine samples sitting, not having orders, and more. That was one of the first things we did.

J: For us on my side where I came from it was big. There was a lot of running around and chasing doctors for orders. So we came out with a strict list of what we do. So at the end of the day someone isn’t left wondering what to do. 

M: We tag into the True North metrics and we also continue to do stuff we started last year. The metrics are increasing number of patients. We started with a really low number and we have brought it back to the staff and identified 5 people who wanted to own the process themselves. We asked for volunteers and we were able to make those 5 people “super users” What could they do to support me to support the organization? We did that around MyChart. For telehealth, everyone is doing it, but people were struggling, so we made a little cheat sheet around workflow to make it easier for people.

J: We broke people off into teams and took sections of the doctors -- it was a domino effect, it made everything much easier. It made it a much smoother process after coming back from deployment, in this new transition that nobody really knows well. 

M: Jen’s more of the clinical nursing part, but we also have two ASRs who are on our UBT committee. They come to every single meeting and they are helping us with our efforts to collect co-pays. Pre-Covid we were pretty good about collecting copays, but then Covid hit and no one wanted to handle money or credit cards. We fell off and were collecting very little. Many in-persons were telehealth, you can’t make someone pay when they’re at home. So we used their input a lot to brainstorm how we could get better around our co-pays. We made efforts based on what the front desk staff thought and we implemented changes there. 

We started this journey about 6 months into the UBT realizing that -- we are attached to the hospital, so not only do we bill for provider visits but we bill for a facility charge. That’s attesting that they use space and rooms and nursing services here. I kept getting a report that we were missing the facility charges. I put a lot of efforts into it initially on my own before the UBT. How can I make sure people see that they didn’t do it? It’s a really busy clinic, these staff were seeing 325 patients a day. They’re busy and they forgot to go back and do it. So I started keeping my eyes on it and we ended up adding a column in our online system so we coil see. Still, things were getting missed. I caught a lot but I was still missing some. So I hired a clinical coordinator with her eyes on it. We were seeing about 50 still missing each month - it was a lot of money. Marie was really excited to know the UBT could be part of a financial gain, so we brought it to UBT. The people at UBT thought, hey, I can own a piece of this, we can have three people also on the floors who are looking at it. So Jen asked who wanted to do it. We were doing better, then COVID hit. And we came back from COVID and a lot of stuff people just forgot what to do. My eyes ended up going back on it. So we started knowing again that a lot is being missed. Recently we just brought it back to UBT, and we came up with a process trying to regain back where we were.

J: When we did it like that, it went from 50 a month then a couple weeks ago it was 0-5 a month. With all of us looking at it. 

M: We get like 170$ for that facility fee - it’s graded by level. It’s a lot of money. Two months ago we had zero in the month, first time in ten years. We learned something: of those five, sometimes they were booked as a physical so we did not do them, because we don’t do a facility charge for physicals, or the provider was late or unable to do the physical, or just did a follow-up. But the follow-up DOES need a facility charge -- we didn’t do it because something was scheduled wrong. Working together, we have a really great partnership. Not just with Jen and me, but with everyone on our team. People have been great to go out and share what we are doing with our UBT. Unfortunately, sometimes managers take the brunt of resistance to making change, without the buy-in. But I have my people also speaking to the changes. That's one of the biggest things for me as a manager. Buy-in from the people who are doing it -- people also feel open to saying what isn’t working, or what we need to change. 

J: There’s a good open line of communication, it makes it easy to get stuff done and come to people with our problems and concerns, and feel confident that it will at least get addressed. Even if it’s not perfect there will be an effort made. 

M: We have a really great UBT team because of the relationships. We’ve been through it from the get-go. We know what works and what doesn’t. We know how we each work. The biggest thing for me as a manager is that I want the change to happen I can try to justify my way, but I am not the solution. So really, the best thing for me is to have this core group of my team communicating workflow issues or changes. It’s great for the team to see that the changes aren’t always easy to roll out, we have to work at it, and sometimes go back to the drawing board.

J: The UBT gives us a better perspective of her responsibilities.  

M: They're going to go and work on the details. Just keep it open, they come and say anything to me. IT gets us to where we want to be in the end. Sometimes it’s like, “Holy moly, another thing!” But at the end of the day, our interests are in the staff and the clinic. This is the first time we were a Tier 1 project. 

J: An open line of communication is the most important thing for the UBT. The manager being open and receptive to your ideas. Everybody here as the same goal in mind. We work really well together. 

M: With that, we have our frustrations. Nothing is perfect here. We just started talking last UBT meeting about trying to understand everyone’s role -- and what people are doing every day. There are some hurt feelings if it seems like someone is working harder than others. So we made a mandatory meeting to discuss and understand better everyone’s roles and how we can all help each other on the team, and how to improve everyone’s workflow. The MNA has joined in our UBT -- we want everyone’s input. Sometimes we are in a meeting and think we have an agenda, but then someone brings up frustration from the floor. We haven’t been getting as many ideas right now, but even to have meetings to have conversations about what is going on in the floor. 

J: These are concerns from a week ago and we already have a meeting planned about it. 

M: The minutes are always typed up and posted so everyone can read it. There is a good line of communication. After the meetings I always email everyone about the direction we want to move in. The staff can start the conversation -- this is what we are trying to do. You HAVE to get the buy-in, you can't just have one or two people there. 

J: It has to be a group effort.  The more people that were involved, the easier the solution was to come to. 

M: For the wrap up, for me, when you put a dollar amount to it -- the staff all want the organization to be successful. It’s more than just, “you missed something.” Instead it’s, “Oh! We could have gotten an extra 10k this week if we had caught that” I think it led to an instant buy-in. Even from the get-go for us, we had all of those ideas come in, and then in the meeting we typed up all the ideas and asked the staff to pick the top three to work on. That’s how we sorted it. That took 2-3 weeks figuring it out. 

J: We kind of went with issues that they already knew were going on. And they saw the issues right in front of their face, that helped.

M: We included everyone in the process. We’d say “we’re doing this because of this, but do you have a better idea?”  We’d help teammates figure out the language to explain the changes to the other staff members. 

I’m not perfect, I go to the floor and try to help them when they say they’re drowning. I have been in their shoes. I think that is really helpful. I appreciate how hard it is.

J: She doesn’t reprimand. She brings stuff up that gets everyone on board and wants to be proactive about it. You aren’t feeling like you are being singled out or reprimanded. She has a different way of saying hey, we need something else. 

M: We are successful because of our partnership amongst ourselves. I’ve told people, well, I remember when I first started UBT, I did feel like “OMG, this is another thing, it’ll be a lot of work” . . . and honestly, it probably was. The first six months to a year, it was a lot — the minutes, communications, updating everyone. Yes, it took effort. But we are in such a better place. The solution isn’t with the manager, it’s with the team. If I didn’t have my team, I’m not successful. I’m only successful because of them -- and having the appreciation that you need buy-in. At the end of the day, it’s them doing most of the work, telling you what is not right out there. I can only assume everything is perfect and then it’s not. If they don’t tell me what isn’t going well, I’m looking pretty foolish if I think I have a wonderfully running clinic. You have to rely on your people. People can join any time they want. We want people to tell us what’s going on, in the meetings or with suggestion notes. 

J: Everything was hairy when we came back from deployment. Working with new rules for months and then coming back to a new environment — it was really hard. Even though we are back, it’s completely different. 

M: Some people were upset with others. I think when you are away for four months, you do forget some of the stuff. People forgot to do steps in their processes. 

We used to have 300+ patients in-house; now it’s 150 in-house and 150 telehealth, so the workflow has still totally changed since Covid. 

J: Our workflow is much better now and smoother because everyone knows their roles. 

M: We did a video before COVID hit, for the staff. We  have done some dancing and singing videos. We have a new one coming out, we are looking to a mask-free summer. We are trying to show the hope we have through our new video that will be coming out. It’ll be out on the UMass page.

J: We do really like each other and we have fun. There has to be a balance. Plus we are with kids, so it’s a different environment. For the patients’ sake, they are coming in scared. When you’re a bit of a goof, it makes them a bit more comfortable. 

Covid Vaccine Mandate?

As yet, UMass Memorial Hospital has not implemented a requirement for staff to be vaccinated against COVID. Hospital leaders have already said that they expect to require the vaccine when the Emergency Use Authorization is lifted. 

Why Would an Employer Mandate? 

Hospitals maintain that the vaccine is good for patients and employees. Research shows that the COVID vaccine is effective at preventing disease and its spread, and at reducing the severity of the disease in the case of breakthrough infection, including, to a good degree, in the case of the existing known variants.  

There is pressure from the public for hospitals to require the vaccine. Groups such as The American Medical Association, The Association of American Medical Colleges and this coalition of infectious disease organizations  have already endorsed a mandate. Although public opinion about mandates was mixed at the end of 2020, a majority of Massachusetts residents have now been vaccinated, and many patients expect their healthcare providers to be vaccinated, too.  

Is a Mandate Legal? 

While it may or may not be legal for an employer to mandate the COVID vaccine while it remains in Emergency Use Authorization status, there is legal precedent to require vaccines. Houston Methodist Hospital recently made headlines when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by employees who objected to a COVID mandate already instituted there.  

Here in Massachusetts, a Suffolk Superior Court judge upheld Brigham Women & Children’s Hospital’s flu vaccine mandate in 2017 when it was challenged by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the union representing Registered Nurses. 

What Is SHARE Doing? 

SHARE leaders are watching this issue closely, and talking with co-workers about what they think. There is a wide range of opinions about the COVID vaccine in our union of 3000 people, and some opinions are at odds with each other. We’re working to stay on top of the latest information on the topics involved, including the scientific, legal, and ethical issues.  

SHARE is also talking consistently with management about what they are going to do about the COVID vaccine. The bottom line is that we want SHARE members to keep their jobs. We will continue to encourage the employer to think responsibly, creatively, and flexibly about any developing vaccine policy.  

Other SHARE posts about the COVID vaccine 

New eLearning This Year: What Do You Think?

UMass Memorial’s Annual Required Education (ARE) looks pretty different this year – the hospital replaced their old version with a new eLearning package.  It turns out that national regulations now require that all hospital workers receive training in more than we were getting in previous years.  This means that everyone will be seeing content (if you haven’t already) on subjects such as recognizing elder abuse, protecting against blood-borne infections, and end of life care . . . things that may seem pretty remote and out-of-scope to many SHARE members.  None of this content was written or determined by UMass Memorial – we are told that these same modules are used by 80% of workers at academic medical centers nationally. 

It’s possible to test-out of some of the content and save some time.  That said, you should expect things to take longer this year – perhaps 5-6 hours.  And many members are also finding the content more challenging, which makes it harder to dip in and out of throughout the day in between other tasks. 

The deadline is July 30th, which means this is the final week.  UMass Memorial is supposed to give you the time you need to complete this training; if you anticipate that it’s going to be hard to find the time to finish this week, you should talk to your manager right away.  Because of the extra time needed, managers have the option this year of making it possible for SHARE members to complete their ARE at home (for pay, of course), so talk to your manager if you think this might be a good option for you.

We’re continuing to meet with HR to discuss SHARE members’ eLearning. Although this year’s program seems to be set in place, please let us know what you think so we can make next year’s experience better.  And if you haven’t finished yet and need help figuring out with your manager how you’re going to get it done, reach out about that too. 

The Federal Child Tax Credit: Calculate Your Amount, and More

Child Credit Calculator for Union Members 

AFSCME’s Online Child Tax Credit Calculator makes it easy

In response to the pandemic, unions pressed the government for many of the financial reliefs provided by the American Rescue Plan, including the Child Tax Credit. You can calculate how much money you can expect (up to $3600 annually per child) using the AFSCME Child Tax Credit Calculator. Please note when you fill in the form that SHARE members at UMass Memorial Hospital are in AFSCME Local Number 3900.  AFSCME is the parent union to SHARE. (Providing your cell phone number signs you up by default to receive text messages from AFSCME and its affiliates, although you can also opt out of these.) 

Calculation Basics 

According to CNET, For parents of eligible children up to age 5, the IRS will pay up to $3,600, half as six advance monthly payments and half as a 2021 tax credit. For each child ages 6 through 17, the IRS will pay up to $3,000, divided in the same way this year and next. For dependents aged 18 or full-time college students up through age 24, the IRS will make a one-time payment of $500 in 2022. If your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) is $75,000 or less as a single filer, $112,500 or less as a head of household or $150,000 or less filing jointly, you'll get the maximum amount. 

Other Useful Tools 

• Find answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the calculation, joint child custody, avoiding overpayment, and more. The site also provides a Tax Credit Calculator. (If you are overpaid, you may be required to pay the overpayment back in your annual returns to the IRS.) 

• Avoid Child Tax Credit Related Scams.  

• Manage your payment through the IRS website.  

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.

Rep & Eboard Election Results (Plus, Learn About Your Pension!)

Many thanks to all of you who sent in contact information, let us know your preferred voting method, nominated your coworker, or nominated yourself in our first ever attempt at an electronic election of SHARE Reps and Executive Board Members!

The nomination process went smoothly, and there were enough open positions that no voting will be required this year. A vote is only held when there are more people running than there are positions to run for. So, we won’t get to try out the online voting process this year. But the good news is that many people stepped forward to be active in SHARE, and that makes our union stronger.

Congratulations to the new and returning SHARE representatives, who are now considered elected! Visit the SHARE hospital website for an updated list of all current SHARE Reps and Executive Board members. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Thank you,

The SHARE Election Committee

p.s., Be sure to check the blog for details about next week’s Virtual Pension & 401k Information Meetings. They’ll be held on Zoom Monday evening and Tuesday midday.

Back by Popular Demand: SHARE Pension & 401k Information Session

Blog Digest: Opposing MGB Expansion, Spotlight on the Single Billing Office, and More!

YOU Can Help Oppose MGB Expansion

The SHARE Executive Boards at the Med Center and Marlborough Hospital have voted to join the Coalition to Protect Community Care. SHARE leaders are already on the record as opposing the expansion of Mass General Brigham (MGB), because the expansion threatens SHARE Union jobs, the financial stability of our hospitals, and care for our most vulnerable patients. (Read more about how MGB’s expansion could impact SHARE jobs and Central Massachusetts.)

We encourage you to make your voice heard. The Department of Public Health has reopened the public comment period from now until Wednesday, June 2nd at 5PM ET. It’s really quick – just takes a minute!

• Using the coalition’s online platform, just enter your name and address, then

• You can add your thoughts to the statement or just hit “submit” to send the basic message of why we oppose the Mass General Brigham expansion.

• Share to any and all who might be willing to help with this! (To make it easy, you can use the email template found here.)

Laurie Abernathy, SHARE UBT Union Co-Lead. Before the UBT, she says process improvement could often seem like “putting a band-aid on top of a band-aid.” (photo credit: Candace Tauson)

Spotlight on the Unit-Based Teams: The Single Billing Office

SHARE and UMass Memorial continue to grow our Unit Based Teams program. We’ve taken the opportunity to spotlight the work of the UBT in the Single Billing Office (SBO). Shortly after launching their team, the pandemic hit, and SHARE members there were suddenly thrust into a work-from-home situation. But the SBO used their UBT to keep making strides, improve service to patients, and make their own work more satisfying. To hear their story, check out this this interview with UBT Co-Leads Laurie Abernathy and Michelle Locke.

Nominations Are Now Open for SHARE Executive Board and Representative Positions

Don’t forget! You can nominate a co-worker or yourself through June 9. See full details here.

We hope you have a safe and meaningful Memorial Day Weekend. As always, thank you for everything you do to keep our union and our hospital running strong.

*YOU* Can Help Oppose MGB Expansion

SHARE opposes the expansion of Mass General Brigham (MGB) because the expansion threatens Union jobs, the financial stability of our hospitals, and care for our most vulnerable patients. (Read more about how MGB’s expansion could impact SHARE jobs and Central Massachusetts.)

SHARE Encourages You TO VOICE YOUR CONCERNS

The Department of Public Health has reopened the public comment period from now until Wednesday, June 2nd at 5PM ET. It’s really quick – just takes a minute!

To make providing a public testimony for community members that have not yet testified easier, the Coalition to Protect Community Care has launched an online platform that allows you to fill out your personal information and send a testimony for public record directly to the Department of Public Health’s Determination of Need program. In other words:

• Just enter your name and address, then

• You can add your thoughts to the statement or just hit “submit” to send the basic message of why we oppose the Mass General Brigham expansion.

• Share to any and all who might be willing to help with this! (We’ve included a sample email template below)

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Sample Email Template

Hi X,

SHARE is proud to support the Coalition to Protect Community Care, which is opposing Mass General Brigham’s proposal to build outpatient facilities in Woburn, Westborough and Westwood. We have serious concerns that, if approved, Mass General Brigham’s outpatient centers will threaten the financial viability of critical local healthcare providers; exacerbate healthcare inequities; increase the cost of care; and jeopardize essential local jobs.

The Department of Public Health is now accepting public comments on Mass General Brigham’s proposal until Wednesday, June 2 at 5PM. If you would like to make your concerns known, please feel empowered to submit a pre-written comment via this online petition platform.

If you have colleagues, family members and friends who are also concerned about Mass General Brigham’s plans, we encourage you to share this online platform with them so that they too can make their voices heard.

Thank you in advance for your advocacy.

Best,

X

UBT Spotlight: Single Billing Office

Laurie Abernathy, SHARE UBT Union Co-Lead. Before the UBT, she says process improvement could often seem like “putting a band-aid on top of a band-aid.” (photo credit: Candace Tauson)

A NOTE FROM THE SHARE CO-SPONSOR 

Before establishing a Unit Based Team, the SBO had already been consistently improving. Still, morale among the staff was rocky. Just before we launched the UBT, I attended a staff meeting like none I’d ever seen, one that brought the whole department together . . . except that management stayed out of the meeting so that the staff felt more comfortable to speak freely. 

The conversation was led by staff member and SHARE Rep Laurie Abernathy. The staff speculated about how to deal with their many frustrations: turnover had been high, management had been difficult to contact when angry patients needed to be escalated. Their idea-board ideas were stuck in the parking lot, and they found themselves often unable to communicate about essential things. The staff felt adrift and underpowered, detached from other departments in the hospital, and even from their own management structure. But they clearly wanted to do the best job they could, taking care of patients and one another.    

At the request of the staff, Laurie brought the concerns and ideas back to me as their SHARE organizer, and to SBO Director, Joy Cournoyer. Joy listened thoughtfully, intent to make improvements. And now that we’re UBT Co-Sponsors together, I’ve gotten to see firsthand how the UBT structure has provided new ways for leadership to support and champion this Team.

Together with Management Co-Leads Michelle Locke and Rebecca Boutilette, Laurie and a half-dozen other SHARE members have been meeting as a team every two weeks. As a result of their UBT, I’ve seen the whole department better enabled to bring their expertise and compassion more consistently to every interaction they have with patients. They have a great story to tell . . .

--Kirk Davis, SHARE Staff Organizer and UBT Co-Sponsor 

Michelle Locke & Laurie Abernathy,

SBO UBT Co-Leads

Interviewed by Rafael Rojas 

The Unit Based Team: First Impressions

Laurie: I first heard of the UBT when I became a union rep. It was about two years ago when I first heard of the idea, and I immediately thought,” Oh my goodness, my department needs this so bad, we could really flourish from working through this system. We’ve always had ideas, and we’ve usually been able to figure out what the problem is, but we would have a hard time with figuring out how to solve them. We would resort to putting a band-aid on top of a band-aid until some change down the line would just blow all of our band-aids off and we would be forced to start from square one.”  

Michelle: So much progress has been made in our department as a result of the UBT. I can honestly say that in my short amount of time here, that I’m unsure that we would have even been put a lot of our goals on the list of what we needed to improve. The UBT has forced us in a good way to hold our feet to the fire. We are making a commitment to the UBT, but also to everyone in the department and it’s a great thing to feel responsible for. We are making changes that will help in the future past the pandemic as well, which is just really exciting.  

The First Challenge: Updating the Process Documents 

Michelle: When this UBT formed we had a tough time deciding exactly what metrics we would follow to track our progress and improvements, but these have proven to be helpful, and we are still constantly thinking of different and better ways to measure these changes.  

Michelle: Our primary, but also biggest obstacle and challenge that the UBT has taken on has been updating our process documents. Our process documents are not only outdated, but they lack information of many processes that happened in our department. Those documents that we did have were scattered throughout a SharePoint site that were not easily accessible. If a representative was looking for information while they were on the phone with the patient, they would be stumbling on the phone just to get them that information. In addition to that, being in the office brought the advantage of being able to lean over and get help from a coworker or from one of the two team-leads that were present on the floor. This is something that simply could not translate to working from home, and it became urgent for us to figure out how to organize this information for the representatives and a patient. We wanted to be sure that we could not only get the patients the information in a timely manner, but to get them the entirety of their information accurately.   

In order for us to take on all of these process documents, we as a team have to figure what is the most important document. Where do you start when you take a look and see a hundred or more process documents that need to be updated, where do you even begin? We took a lot of time in meetings and in person, but primarily since we’ve been home, it’s taken a lot of time as a group to get together and brainstorm what is going to be the most beneficial for who’s on the telephone – so let’s first put together our list of process documents, then let’s prioritize them in order of which will have the biggest impact. Then comes the challenge of deciding who will write these process documents? It’s great that we know we need all of these documents, but who has the skills and who has the time to write all of these documents? Working on this from home has been extremely challenging, but we are making significant progress on this end.   

UP-ENDED BY THE PANDEMIC  

Michelle: Our UBT has been in existence for a little over a year now. When it started, we were a department that was working in an office together, so the dynamics were very different from what they are today. At first, we would meet in a group environment, but after March of last year it shifted to working from home and meeting remotely. This change had a big impact on a lot of people’s lives and really shook up the department. It is not that the UBT was pushed to the side, but we simply had a lot on our plate and certain changes did not allow for the UBT to receive the amount of time that it deserves. The priority was first to make sure that everyone was safe and settled at home as the setting of our work shifted. It was only for a few months that the UBT received less time than we had hoped, but we got right back to it as soon as we were acclimated to working from home.

“Our department went through a significant change in the way that we measured productivity. In a call center environment, you typically take a look at the amount of telephone calls that a representative is taking. Once the shift to working from home happened, the UBT presented the opportunity to change this measuring system that was among other broken parts of the system. The UBT served as a catalyst to implement and make a lot of the changes that we were in the process of doing in a manner that was more manageable for the reps. Instead of management or leadership initiating some of the conversations around issues and concerns, it is the UBT as a whole that presents these topics at our meetings. To have a system of communication that involves all parts of the department makes it feel like a very welcoming space to present some of the issues and concerns that the department has,” says SBO UBT Management Co-Lead Michelle Locke  (image from presentation to LMPC)

Laurie: Our department has a large age range, so it can take those who are not as used to relying on so much technology to get their work done forever to simplify the processes and transitions to working from home. For months we just could not get the web-ex meetings to work properly for all of our members and it forced us to slow down and make sure that everyone could acclimate to the change. When we were working on this project of organizing the documents, we also wanted to be sure that we could format and sort them in a way that is accessible to all of our employees. We’re not quite there yet, but that will be one of the challenges that we overcome. People learn differently and the key will be to figure out the best way to train these process documents to a group of people that all have various ways of learning and understanding this information.   

Laurie: Our department as a whole had the capacity to figure out where the problem is, what is causing it, and even thinking of how to fix it. The biggest problem was always trying to implement it. We could only take a project so far, but then we’d have to stop and wait for someone to finish.   

THE UNIT BASED TEAM: AN IMPROVED IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM  

Laurie and Michelle recently presented about their UBT’s challenges and successes to the Labor Management Partnership Council. Our hospital and our union meet monthly to plan together about shared goals and concerns in a group called the Labor Management Partnership Council, or LMPC (see page 6 of the SHARE Contract Agreement for a description of this group).

Laurie: As an alternative to the old improvement system (in which someone would get fed up with something and send an email to management, who would then send an email over to someone else and create a chain that was difficult to track and really emphasize), we now have a chart that organizes and prioritizes our ideas and problems. When something is posted on it, it goes out to everyone, and then everyone has the ability to add their input on how important it is to them or not. 

Michelle: Altogether, we have identified and organized 103 different processes prioritized by where it will benefit the representative and where it will benefit the patient. So far, we have completed 20 of them since January.  

Laurie: Everyone’s experience in the office is different, but this system really allows us to validate these issues and have them be addressed when they need to be. This has really helped us in our project to update our process documents and the representatives all give good input on where the information is lacking. There is really a lot involved in it when you keep in mind the training that comes with accessing the new documents once they are put together, we are making a lot of progress where a lot of work has to be done, but we are not cutting any corners. As soon as the training is done, we upload the document to a SharePoint site to have it be electronically accessible to everyone. Sometimes, we will even identify to some problems with the documents or programs, and we will go back into the steps to fix it.  

WE CARE FOR PATIENTS . . . AND OUR CO-WORKERS  

Michelle: We are a very food-driven department with some amazing cooks and menus. We are all here to work, we are not independently wealthy with mortgages to pay and families to provide for. We have to work, and this comes with high goals and expectations. It is important to find some point in the day that is full of humor, and this is something that we tried to implement into the UBT.  When you ask yourself if you have goals that you have to make, also ask yourself if you can do it in a fun and enjoyable way. With the inception of the UBT, we could not imagine a better way than to introduce it in a way other than a potluck. It was still a professional and formal way, but it was something that everyone could bring something that they enjoyed. If this team was going to be successful, it had to be introduced that made everyone had faith in us for getting things done and improving what they needed. It also opened the door for a system that excited people and motivated them to be a part of the team. With this in mind, we wanted to be sure that those who joined would work well with each other when solving problems, and it has really worked out. If anyone ever feels burnout after finishing a project, there is room to make a newer team that is ready and excited to take on new challenges.   

Laurie: We are essentially a customer service department, so we are always very patient-driven. Our motto is always that the patient comes first, and sometimes we will identify a procedure that doesn’t feel top beneficial to the patient, so we will shift our perspectives and approach accordingly. As a result, we find ourselves working smarter, not harder.  Michelle will always help us in reducing the number of steps that we have to take to get the patient their information in the shortest amount of time while working on a very daunting computer program and simultaneously being on the line with someone who is eager to get their information. If we can get them what they need when they need it, the whole process becomes easier for us too.   

Michelle: To be a part of this team is truly exciting. It is exciting to see the rest of the team involved and motivated. It is moving to feel the trust that we have in one another to get things done. As a team, it’s a huge motivator to participate because everyone has been so defeated previously in our attempts to make change. It is inspiring to feel that we all want to get things done and make our department the best that it can be.   

SHARE Executive Board & Representative Nominations Now Open

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