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Forum, 9 unions agree on pacts
If two tentative contracts are ratified, the hospital system will have pacts with all of its unions, a key to its recovery.
YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health will have new contracts with all nine of its union groups if two tentative agreements reached this week are ratified.
Forum Health’s Northside Medical Center service workers and nurses will vote today and Monday, respectively, on contracts that officials say contain cost savings that are key to Forum Health’s reorganization efforts.
The hospital system filed in March for protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s Chapter 11. Hearings on Forum’s motion to reject current contracts of the two employee groups are scheduled next week in bankruptcy court, but they could be canceled if the unions approve the new contracts.
Forum Health’s Board of Trustees ratified tentative work agreements Thursday via teleconference with the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association/Ohio Nurses Association and Service Employees International Union District 1199.
Forum trustees, however, earlier this month rejected a tentative agreement with the nurses union, saying the 18-month duration of that contract, after which concessions would no longer be in place, was not long enough to enable the company to become financially stable.
The tentative agreement with SEIU is for three years, a union official said.
Details of the nurses’ contract were not provided, but it is likely it also will be longer than 18 months. Representatives of the nurses union did not respond to phone calls.
YGDNA, which represents about 480 nurses at Northside, reached a tentative agreement with Forum on Tuesday. The union has scheduled a ratification vote Monday.
On Wednesday, Forum Health and SEIU 1199, which represents about 680 employees at Northside, reached a tentative agreement. The union’s members were voting today on whether to accept the pact.
“I am pleased to have renewed partnerships with our nurses and SEIU workers at Northside,” said said Walter Pishkur, Forum president and chief executive officer. “This clearly demonstrates their devotion to Northside and their willingness to do what is necessary to make our hospital financially strong, secure and able to provide the valley with top-quality medical care.”
Forum’s reorganization efforts called for shared sacrifice from all the nearly 4,000 employees within the system.
With the final acceptance of these agreements, every Forum employee — union and nonunion, management and nonmanagement — collectively will have achieved what was asked of them, Pishkur said in a prepared statement.
“Employees of Northside Hospital made a commitment to this community that they would make fair sacrifices to continue to deliver quality care,” said Becky Williams, president of SEIU District 1199, in a prepared statement.
“The agreement reached today shows that employees have honored that commitment.”
Among the concessions SEIU members at Northside agreed to are wage freezes, increased contributions to health insurance, and stopping 401k contributions made by the employer, the union said.
The SEIU tentative agreement at Northside amounts to $5 million in concessions per year. Previously, SEIU reached a tentative agreement at Forum’s Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren that will save the hospital system more than $500,000 in 2009 and an additional $900,000 in 2010.
In total, Forum Health employees represented by District 1199 have agreed to $6 million in concessions per year, Williams said.