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August 6, 2004Nurses awaiting 4 percent raisesOfficials, union can't agree on how to pay itByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY- Northern Michigan Hospital nurses awaiting a "market adjustment" pay raise will have a longer wait, because hospital officials and the nurses union disagree on how to implement the wage hike. The two sides met Thursday to discuss a hospital counter-proposal to the union's offer to implement a financial package for nurses. Under the nurse's proposal, the hospital and union would create an evenly split committee to set specific criteria for wage adjustments, Teamsters Local 406 attorney Ted Iorio said. The guidelines could include comparable hospitals with similar case mixes and levels of patient care, he said. The union would agree to consider management's proposal from last spring to increase nurse wages by 4 percent this year, Iorio said. The raise would need to be retroactive for the full year, and management would have to agree to two additional wage hikes - December and December 2005 - using criteria established by the joint committee. Management's counter-offer agrees with the committee but would make the raise retroactive to April 18, hospital spokesman Thomas Spencer said. Any future wage hikes would be determined by the joint committee under the hospital's plan. Spencer said management is disappointed the union did not accept its offer. "What's important is that our nurses get the wage they deserve," he said. Iorio said the hospital's counter-offer raised many questions - including whether the committee will also set benefit packages. Under the hospital's plan, if the three management representatives on the committee don't support a pay raise, no majority exists so no wage hikes can happen, he said. Hospital management could declare an impasse in negotiations, and unilaterally implement the market wage adjustment they proposed in the spring. Spencer said management was "looking at its options." Iorio said declaring an impasse would be premature. "We would see it as bad-faith bargaining if they declare an impasse, whether it is legal or not," he said. "We told them that what they do now determines whether we continue with the same tired, worn policy of not getting an agreement, or whether they are really going to work with us."
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