Tuesday, December 10, 2013

L&M bosses are no-shows at bargaining session

And they lie about the reasons
By Matt O'Connor

Today, nurses and techs showed up as agreed to last week to resume talks to end the lockout of nearly 800 caregivers by the corporation that operates L&M Hospital. But at 1:00PM, their representatives were a "no-show," making good on a threat made yesterday to refuse to meet unless talks were restricted to our union’s negotiations committee.

It's bad enough that we came ready to work toward a resolution and managers stayed home. Before the talks were even scheduled to start, they spun another story in a "Fast Blast" email message to other corporation employees. 

The communication, sent before 10:00AM, falsely claimed "the negotiation session scheduled for today has been canceled by the unions' negotiating team." 


This deception is the latest example of why it is unacceptable to allow the corporation to keep its employees out of the room during what should be an open, transparent process.

What these managers don't get is that they have created -- and are continuing to perpetuate -- a climate of mistrust among the hospital’s caregivers and the entire community. 

That's why today we placed an "open letter" in The Day to the board of directors appealing for them to take action.

It is imperative that the board get their CEO and hospital managers to end the lockout, return these caregivers to their patients' bedside, and restore the community's trust in their community hospital.

The time is now to act. Every day that passes without a resolution is another day of compromised care for this community.