This article can be found at:    
   http://www.usw.org/usw/program/content/1277.php?lan=en

Print Page

First Contract in Hand for Gracedale Nursing Home Employees


 Health Care Costs Frozen for Two Years

Employees at Gracedale Nursing Home, members of USW Local 2599 in Bethlehem, Pa., have voted overwhelmingly to accept the terms of a two-year contract, their first as members of our union.

 

 Pictured are Local 2599 President Jerry Green, seated (l to r) Unit Griever Michelle Hoffner, Unit Secretary Paul Verret and Unit President Judy Barron. Back row (l to r) Brenda Sanderson, Debby Messigner, Linda Ferretti and Lisa Berger.


Those covered by the contract include registered nurses and social workers at Gracedale, the county-run nursing home in Northampton County. Though the USW represents a substantial number of health care workers across North America, the Gracedale RNs are the first to ever organize in Pennsylvania.

Early in the organizing campaign it took a ruling from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to allow the USW drive to proceed. The county had challenged the campaign, proposing that the nurses and social workers were supervisors and thus not eligible to join a union. This claim was rejected by the state and the drive began. Ultimately, workers voted by a 2-1 margin in favor of the union.

The newly ratified contract calls for a four-percent raise in each of the contract's two years. It also puts a two-year freeze on health care premiums and adds an additional holiday and increased vacation time. Increasing health care premiums was the key issue that led to the workers to choose a union.

The contract will run through 2006, with this year's raises being retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004.

For more information, contact the USW at (877) 511-8792

For an Organizing Contact Request Form, click HERE.