NUHW declines KP’s enhanced proposals
Throughout bargaining, we have been listening sincerely to your concerns about the state of mental health care, your challenges, and the help you need to continue delivering high-quality, compassionate care to our members.
We share your concerns and are actively addressing your priorities at the bargaining table by enhancing our proposals around workload, burnout, and maintaining fair compensation. On Friday, we presented an even better offer than before, in response to what we have heard from you:
Increased 3-year wage proposal: 4%, 3%, and 3% over the 3 years of the contract
We agree with union leadership that inflation is a factor to consider. In response, we increased our wage proposal to 4%, 3%, and 3% over the 3 years of the contract, with a 1% lump sum in 2022. This will help keep pace with inflation and continue to keep you among the best compensated in your profession.
Retroactive Payment of up to $6,300 per employee
We also offered a retroactive bonus that would have provided $6,300 for full time employees, $5,000 for part-time employees and $2,400 for per-diem employees within 60 days of ratification if the union accepted the offer and cancels the strike. Union leadership indicated it will leave all that money on the table.
Increased indirect patient care time proposal from 15% to 18%
We also increased our indirect patient care (IPC) proposal from the current contract rate of 15% to 18%. We understand you need more IPC time. We agree that it is important to maintain access for patients while we continue our aggressive efforts to hire more therapists. Our proposal increases IPC time and aims to strike a balance on this challenging issue to ensure we reach an agreement that is good for you and good for patients.
We also adjusted our Letter of Agreement on Immediate Relief, to redefine a new patient as one who has not been seen in 12 months, rather than 24 months — which along with our IPC increase would balance workload for therapists and access to care for patients. Your union’s proposal on IPC time would reduce our ability to offer patients appointments, while we work diligently to hire more therapists and grow the pipeline for new therapists during a national shortage of mental health professionals.
Your union has rejected our proposals outright, offered minor adjustments that have not moved us forward, and demonstrate a clear intent to force you to go on strike.
We encourage you not to forfeit your income and deliberately disrupt care for thousands of patients who depend on us.
We are proud of the critical work you do to serve our members’ mental health needs. We have much more to do to address all of the challenges we face together, and we are working hard to hire additional therapists as we also work to address retention issues.
On behalf of our patients and your colleagues, we will be grateful to you for choosing to be there for them, providing the excellent care for which you are recognized.