News From USW: Be Fair To Those Who Care; Nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Schedule Three Days of Informational Picketing to Bring Attention to Unfair Health Care Proposals

News From USW: Registered nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital today began three days of informational picketing outside the hospital to demonstrate their demands for a fair contract.

The informational picketing will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily on July 24, 25 and 26 in front of the hospital on Somerset Street.

Nurses are currently working under an extension of a contract that expired on June 30, 2006. The current contract extension expires on July 27, when the nurses are scheduled to vote to accept or reject a contract offer from the hospital.

Robert Wood Johnson is taking a hard line in labor negotiations over health care coverage for a nursing staff that has consistently won national awards for nursing excellence in patient care.

“We, the 1,300 members of USW Local 4-200, believe we provide quality health care to the public and we deserve quality health care for ourselves and our families,” said local union president Jerry Collins.

The hospital’s proposals include large increases in the cost to nurses of health care coverage that will negate proposed raises, and in some instances, cause a loss of income for nurses.

Affordable care is only available to nurses when they use Robert Wood Johnson facilities. If the hospital does not provide the needed service, nurses are stuck with a co-pay of $800 to $1,000 for going elsewhere.

Co-pays for health care services out-of-state for nurses and their families are sky high.

Many nurses and their family members are unable to get appointments in a timely manner, if at all, due to the shrinking number of physicians affiliated with Robert Wood Johnson who will accept the hospital plan.

The USW has proposed a superior health care plan that would remove the delays and actually cost the hospital less money than its own proposals. It would also allow participants to go to local health care facilities when necessary, and would broaden the pool of available physician services.

The United Steelworkers represents more than 850,000 North American union members working in a wide range of manufacturing and service industries including health care.