On Wednesday July 8, the Bay Area Hospital bargaining team met with the employer to negotiate changes to the Health & Welfare benefits provided to the membership.  After a full day of bargaining, the parties came to an agreement that should benefit both the employer and the membership.  A ratification vote will be held on Friday July 10 at Bay Area Hospital in the Myrtle Room from 7 am to 7 pm.

Local 555 members at Bay Area Hospital will see their health insurance coverage switched over from the Joint Labor Management Retail Trust health plan to the UFCW 555 Portland Area Employers Health Trust starting August 1, 2009.  Members, who are currently paying approximately $73 a month, will also see their employee co-premiums for health insurance reduced.  As long as the hourly rate for the health insurance does not exceed $4.59 per hour (currently $3.51) in 2009, members will see no out of pocket cost.  Provisions also exist that limit member’s co-premiums if the rate remains below $4.72 on any increase after May 1, 2010 through the remainder of the contract that expires December 31, 2010.

Congratulations to the UFCW Local 555 members at Bay Area Hospital.  Monday, April 20, 2009 members had their opportunity to vote on whether or not to accept the current contract offer.  By a vote of 109-76, the offer was accepted.

After months of negotiating and after some long hours on April 6 & 7 we have a recommended offer for the membership.  We will be taking this offer to the membership for a vote on April 20, 2009.  The bargaining committee unanimously voted to recommend this offer.

The proposal addresses some of our top priority issues identified by the members in the pre-bargaining survey.  This offer provides adequate funding for health coverage and provided additional funding to the pension.  We believe this offer is dramatically better than the last offer and it is the team’s belief that the entire bargaining unit will recognize the improvement.  If accepted, this will be a two year contract.

It is important to make an effort to attend one of the ratification meetings scheduled for April 20, 2009.  We encourage you to get active and make your voice heard.  We will be sending out more details about the vote, advising you of the location and times.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us or a member of the bargaining team.  Remember, if you run into a bargaining team member thank them for all the time they devoted to secure this contract, it was very difficult and more than likely the toughest bargaining we have faced at BAH in a very long time.

Your Bargaining team met on March 10, 2009, with the BAH management team to review the issues concerning why our members rejected the employer proposal.

The parties agreed that most of the language issues have been resolved and we do not need to review them except if they have a financial impact.

We then reviewed and shared with management the comments and concerns of the members regarding the employer proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected by the membership.

We expressed to management that the 24-hour waiver should be revised and the Union and management discussed changing the waiver that would result in a minimum of 20 hours between employee shifts/schedules.

We then spent time trying to resolve the wage and pension issues. The bargaining team made it clear that a pay raise has to be across the board.

The bargaining team and management were unable to resolve the wage and pension issues at this date.

We have scheduled four (4) more bargaining sessions, April 6th, 7th, 20th, and 21st.  We may request that the State Mediator come in to our bargaining for the 20th and 21st. 

Your bargaining team is set on finding a solution that gets us a contract our members will ratify.

We appreciate the members wearing their buttons and bracelets in solidarity for a good contract.

Stay informed and connected to what is going on.