Two local branches of the Service Employee Union International (SEIU) began the renegotiation process of their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with URochester and Strong Memorial Hospital as of Aug. 6. The current contract, which is now set to expire Sept. 26, covers more than 2,000 employees.
1199 SEIU, one of the two branches, represents employees of the Strong Memorial Hospital and Golisano Children’s hospital who work in a variety of fields, from nursing assistants and dietary workers to drivers and stockkeepers. The other branch, Local 200United, represents those employed at the University of Rochester, covering dining services to library stack attendants. The unions’ main goals are making sure their members receive a livable wage and addressing the staffing shortage.
To update union members on the proceedings, 1199 SEIU held a contract campaign kick-off event in the back parking lot of their Rochester office Aug. 29, a week before the contract’s initial expiration date. According to Tracey Harrison, vice-president of 1199’s Rochester-Corning district, and lead negotiator for both union branches of SEIU, the event served as “an opportunity for our members to come forward and tap into a lot of different resources that we are connected to.” These resources range from health insurance benefits to child-care, which union members can re-register for annually.
The contract was extended to Sept. 26 to accommodate the ongoing negotiations. This extension is not out of line with what the unions were expecting according to Harrison. “This is a very mature contract,” he said. “It’s more than 52-years-[old] … and there is a lot of language out there. There’s a lot of challenges that are out there, so typically it does take a little time.”
To keep everyone in the loop, Communications Coordinator April Lee Zell spearheads the social outreach aspect by sending out informational emails, posting on social media, and, most importantly, organizing in-person meetings.
The unions finished presenting their initial economic terms Sept. 11. According to Harrison, these terms address, “education benefits, retirement, wages, staffing, shift differential, no discrimination language, protections of that nature, bereavement time, you name it.” He stated that “any and everything that impacts our members from day to day in the workplace is really outlined within this collective bargaining agreement.” They have also “put across the table a proposal around neutrality … that will allow those individuals who are interested in joining a union” to do so “without fear of retaliation.”
These negotiations are not only applicable for currently unionized URochester employees. For those who were initially hired in non-union positions, “there is a process that they can go through” to join a union. According to Harrison, if the majority of a department is interested in joining a union, in “a lot of cases, employers will recognize that and agree” to hold an election, but on occasion, they are “met with resistance [from the employers] for a variety of reasons, but the number one … [is] the financial aspect.”
In these negotiations, Harrison is looking to address many of the same issues which caused URochester and Strong Memorial Hospital employees to strike in 2023.
Harrison described how the community rallied around them as non-union members came in to support the cause. “We had grad students. We had individuals from the community. We had elected officials who came and stood shoulder to shoulder, side by side with the workers who were being impacted,” he said. If all goes well, hopefully, it will be a while before they need to turn to such drastic measures to be heard.
