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Forum Health rejects nurses’ latest offer
YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health has rejected a $4 million concessionary contract package offered by the registered nurses union at Northside Medical Center.
The package, worth in excess of $4 million a year in concessions, according to the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association/Ohio Nurses Association, was offered Tuesday and rejected by Forum management Wednesday, said Eric Williams, union president.
Forum Health, which this spring filed for bankruptcy protection while it tries to reorganize, has said it is seeking concessions from all of its unionized employees.
Walter Pishkur, Forum president and chief executive officer, did not respond to a telephone call seeking comment on why the company rejected the Northside nurses’ latest offer, and what else the health- care system wants.
The YGDNA, which represents 480 registered nurses at Northside, believes the community needs Northside for several reasons, Williams said.
The hospital provides quality health care, a choice in health-care providers, and is important to the economic survival of the area, employing 1,400 people, he said.
Williams said the union gave millions of dollars in economic concessions in 2007 and 2008, and now has offered an additional $4 million, more than any other Forum labor group.
Also given in 2007 and 2008, Williams said, were accommodations on work-efficiency issues that gave management greater flexibility resulting in operating-cost savings.
The nurses see Northside as a community asset, not just a place of employment. And, despite significant positive financial strides by the hospital, achieved with the help of its employees, Northside management continues to ask for even more, Williams said.
“We are left to wonder if money is the real issue in the negotiations,” Williams added.
At the end of May, Forum reached a tentative contract agreement with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees locals that represent 1,285 workers, including registered nurses and service and technical employees at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren; and others workers at Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland.
Details of the contracts were not released, and those unions have not conducted ratification votes.
alcorn@vindy.com