SCH/LPCH Statement: "Starting in April 2009 we started communications with CRONA leadership around the clinical ladder and the professional advancement program. We were not able to come to agreement before we went into negotiations and so the advancement program became part of the negotiations." Ms. Lee would have you believe that CRONA was the obstacle to reaching agreement. This is simply not the case, and the CRONA Leadership strongly believes that we could have reached agreement in a collaborative and collegial manner, long before now, had Nancy Lee, Pam Wells, and Greg Souza chosen a path that truly honored those values.
CRONA: Background information. In 2007, CRONA agreed to a Side Letter proposed by the hospitals that authorized a joint committee to develop a professional career advancement program. Parenthetically, during those same negotiations, the hospitals stated that we have too many Staff Nurse III's and IV's. The joint committee met only once - in June 2007. The hospitals then requested that we postpone further meetings because they had committed many of their financial and personnel resources to other initiatives (LINKS, Epic, the budget). CRONA agreed to a postponement, and the hospitals never asked to reconvene the joint committee.
It was not until April 2009 that Pam Wells – at a meeting requested by CRONA to discuss another issue, and attended by Lorie Johnson, Paul Cole, and Greg Souza, VP for Human Resources - expressed a desire to discuss the clinical ladder. At the April 2009 meeting, it was decided that subsequent meetings would include SHC.
Next meeting: June 2009. Attended by participants at the April meeting, as well as Nancy Lee for the first time. The approved amended minutes included the hospitals' non-negotiable items for a new professional advancement program as follows: 1) Criteria for determining SN3 and SN4 needs to change to reflect a more professional framework; 2) Peer review will be used as the process for advancement; 3) CRONA RN Staff will develop the design and revision of the professional advancement program. Consultative resources will be made available as recommended by the governance group; 4) Ability to move up and down the levels must be retained. CRONA's non-negotiable items were: 1) Not to be a two-tiered program; 2) Not to have a system that creates a bias toward nurses who are able to present more effectively, recognize the bedside nurse as much as the nurse who prefers to teach or participate in committees; 3) Goals are measurable; 4) Will not violate the intent of the 2007 Side Letter regarding professional career advancement.
July 2009. Sunny Balson attended along with all others from the June meeting. Both parties agreed that there would be a Steering Committee. Some of the duties of the Steering Committee: 1) Determine what resources would be needed to support the work group; 2) Provide parameters for the discussions; 3) Charge the work group to define RN role and recommend how nurses advance within that professional role.
September 2009. Lorie Johnson, Paul Cole, Greg Souza, Pam Wells and Nancy Lee in attendance. Both parties agreed to use the current staff nurse criteria as a starting point. The work group would take from that original tool those items that would benefit the staff nurse advancement program that the work group was to develop, and one of the programs for the work group to look at would be our current program.
October 13, 2009. A lengthy discussion occurred regarding the time line for the development of the professional career advancement program, with the knowledge that formal negotiations will likely begin in mid-January. All agreed that establishing the criteria for a new clinical ladder prior to negotiations was the goal. CRONA made the point that it did not want this process to be a distraction during negotiations. The hospitals .made the point that if this process failed it was likely that a proposal for a new clinical ladder would be put forward as a proposal during negotiations. With this in mind the group agreed that it is was in everyone's best interest to get the process underway as soon as possible. Appropriate release time for nurses participating in the work group was agreed to. This may mean full-day off site meetings to insure substantial progress was made prior to negotiations.
October 16, 2009. Same attendees as at the previous meeting. All again expressed shared interest that this program be designed by staff nurses. Proposed charter for the design team was discussed.
In a draft agreement the hospitals and CRONA agreed that the design team will reconvene after ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement and that neither side would present proposals for a new clinical ladder during formal collective bargaining negotiations if the Advisory (Steering) Committee and design team agree that progress was being made. Both parties also agreed to select a facilitator at the next meeting.
Then the hospitals unilaterally and without discussion notified us that they were discontinuing the process, and would be bringing the matter to negotiations.
November 30, 2009. Greg Souza, Vice President for Human Resources informed CRONA that the hospitals would bring a career advancement proposal to negotiations. The hospitals stated that negotiations would present a better and clearer structure than what the Advisory Group had already accomplished.
In other words, they wanted their PNDP in place ASAP; this despite the fact they hadn't felt it necessary to even visit the subject with CRONA for two years.
They abandoned collaboration and engagement. They chose one program (Barnes Jewish Children's Hospital in St. Louis) with total disregard for the various agreements that we had reached during our discussions.
In February 2010, during negotiations, when the CRONA negotiation team asked for Nancy Lee and Pam Wells to return to the bargaining table to answer questions and provide further clarification about the PNDP, the CRONA negotiation team was informed that they were "too busy" to attend. When CRONA asked questions about the proposed PNDP, the hospitals more often than not, could not provide answers.
In sum, we are where we now are--at impasse--because the hospitals broke off the collaborative process that had been agreed upon and instead presented CRONA with a half-baked and punitive PNDP that they are now forcing upon us. For the sake of all current and future nurses, we will not allow that to happen. Before CRONA will recommend ratification of any tentative agreement, changes must be made in the PNDP.
