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New pacts with nurses, Forum says
Forum has one more union contract to resolve.
YOUNGSTOWN — Ratification votes on new contracts by nurses at Forum Health facilities are scheduled for July 1.
The health-care system and nurses’ unions at Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland reached tentative agreements on new contracts.
The Northside nurses’ agreement was announced Wednesday in a joint statement by Eric Williams, president of the 480-member Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association/Ohio Nurses Association, and Lisa Johnson, Forum Health vice president of human resources.
Also Tuesday, Forum issued a press release announcing a tentative agreement with 22 nurses at Hillside, who are members of the ONA’s Hillside Chapter.
Details of the tentative pacts were not provided.
Johnson said she appreciates the commitment of the nurses at Northside to continued high level of care to its patients and to the future success of the organization.
“Our nurses are supporting Northside’s future growth and success,” Williams said. “We are confident in the quality of care we provide, and we want to do our part to ensure that the community continues to have access and choice for stellar health care.”
With the latest agreements, Forum has either contracts or tentative agreements with all of its union groups except the 700 members of Service Employees International Union District 1199 at Northside.
The 300-member SEIU chapter at Forum’s Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren recently ratified a concessionary contract the union said would save the hospital system $1 million a year.
At the time, however, leaders of SEIU District 1199 accused Forum Health of using “fuzzy finances” in contract bargaining at Northside Medical Center in Youngstown.
SEIU spokesman Anthony Caldwell said an audit by the union shows that Northside has an $11 million annual operating deficit, as opposed to the $22 million to $25 million that Forum says the hospital is losing each year.
Forum Health filed for Chapter 11 protection March 16 under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Under Chapter 11, Forum has protection from it creditors while it attempts to reorganize and become solvent.
alcorn@vindy.com
SEE ASLO: Creditors thrash Forum Health.