News and Events

PRESIDENT’S REPORT
JANUARY 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Let me start by summarizing the last year, as it was a difficult year for everyone.

THE ABC’S
This was a LHINS initiative that forced the movement of many of our members from site to site. The whole premise of this initiative was to streamline the hospitals, to coordinate services to deliverables at each hospital. From articles in the Spectator, we can see that this initiative didn’t work as planned but worked the other way, and produced longer wait times and much confusion in the hospital and our community. This initiative was very trying and emotional on our members.

REDEPLOYMENT
With limited funding coming from the government, HHS again had to find the money for their budget and again, redeployed our members, jobs were eliminated and contractors took positions that our members performed. Grievances were filed, and are still ongoing regarding these issues.

PAY EQUITY
Quite a lot was accomplished on Pay Equity in 2011 but the last quarter we noticed some issues in this process that needed to be looked at and addressed. The Evaluation Committee was reconvened and they worked tirelessly and in mid-December finished this critical piece. The next step is the reconsideration/appeal process. This review takes 30 days, and then this form is returned to us from you.

CONTRACT
Our contract and the freeze that the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) waged against us is over. ONA withdrew their application November 23, 2011, and we are now in the process of getting the next stages in place.

HEALTH & SAFETY
Our Healthy & Safety Committee has and will continue to be kept busy ensuring your workplace is a healthy and safe environment for everyone. From major issues at the JHCC to asbestos charges being laid at MUMC – they have worked tirelessly on your behalf.

These were the major issues that kept your Site Chairs and Executive busy. We had many successes with terminations in 2011, and many members were reinstated. At year end, there were over 440 grievances filed by our members.

2012 will be a year in which our contract will be finalized and Pay Equity completed. I will keep you informed of these developments as they become available.

OUTSOURCING/CONTRACTING OUT
The Hospital, in an effort to reduce costs, has terminated their contract with Cowan and Telus Sourcing Solutions Inc.(TSSI), and has now brought these services back “in house”.

Cowan was contracted to run the adjudication services; that means your Return to Work, Accommodations, Sick Claims etc., for Hamilton Health Sciences.

Telus Sourcing Solutions Inc. was contracted to run certain Human Resources functions. These services of Hamilton Health Sciences were contracted/outsourced around 2005 in an effort to save the Hospital money. It has turned out not to be the case, and now HHS will run these areas again. The Union has always maintained contracting out is not and never will be a cost savings to the Hospital and the Hospital just proved that in this case.

The Union has concerns with the way the Adjudication and Health Ability portion is being introduced and managed in regards to our members. Grievances have been filed and a meeting to discuss this process has been set. I will keep you informed.

I can’t emphasize enough – PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO RUMOURS!
Contact your Site Chair or call the Union office if you want clarification on what you may have heard.

Yours in solidarity,

Dave Murphy
Dave Murphy, President
CUPE Local 7800

NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS
OF CUPE LOCAL 7800

I have been constantly contacting our lawyers to get the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) back to the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to deal with the application they filed against our Local. This matter has been at the OLRB for the past 2¼ years – since September 2009!

The application which ONA filed against our local froze our contract and, as such, we have been unable to negotiate with the Hospital for a new Collective Agreement.

On November 23, 2011, I received notice from CUPE legal that ONA was going to be withdrawing their application at the OLRB. On November 24, 2011, I received the official notice of withdrawal.

What this means to all of us in CUPE 7800 is that our contract is no longer frozen.

The next steps we have ahead of us is to combine the Local 4800 collective agreement with the St. Peter’s Local 778 collective agreement, and from that we will form a composite collective agreement. We will then proceed into negotiations with HHS. I am in the process of securing dates to have these steps completed as soon as possible.

This is indeed good news for all of our members.

In solidarity,

Dave Murphy
President

LOCAL 7800
CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
554 Main Street East, Hamilton Ontario L8M 1J3 (905)385-4555 Fax (905)385-8388

2011 Champions!

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES FOR THEIR DONATIONS TO THE
CUPE 7800 2011 GOLF TOURNAMENT

GREENSHIELD
MEDICAL MART
CUPE LOCAL 7800
BATTLEFIELD ADVERTISING
THE CASUAL GOURMET
HAMILTON MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES CREDIT UNION
THE DOLMAGE HOUSE
KELSEYS
VRM
SUDS EXPRESS/JIFFY LUBE
TWO TROLLS TATTOO DEN
JOSLINS
OAK GABLES GOLF CLUB
ELLIS DON CORPORATION
GOODLIFE FITNESS
LT SPORTS
ANDERSON LAWN CARE

PRESIDENT’S UPDATE
July 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Pay Equity
We are nearing the final stages of Pay Equity. The sore thumbing process is complete. The next step is the weighting and banding of the jobs/classifications, and of course, assigning points to the jobs. This step should be completed within the next few weeks. The final step is negotiating the money to the points, and a retroactive date. We are approximately 85-90% complete and are looking at the end of the year for completion.

Redeployment
Site transfers of staff and programs, realignment of services as well as the LHIN’s initiative the ABC’s at the 5 hospital sites is almost complete. This has caused quite a few problems for our members, but we are addressing each and every one of these issues. Some sites are still running short staffed. Again, we encourage you to fill out the Workload Review form, hand them in to your supervisor and Site Chair so we can, hopefully help to eliminate this issue.

Collective Agreement
I have approached the Hospital to have them pay the wage increase, which was negotiated centrally for us through OCHU (Ontario Council of Hospital Unions). This contract calls for a 2% per year increase for 4 years, and I have asked the Hospital to pay us the last 2 years of this increase (4%, plus the retroactive pay).

Since we were taken to the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) by the Hospital in September 2009, with the merger of St. Peter’s Hospital to HHS, the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) jumped into this action, and made an application to raid our RPN’s. This effectively froze our contract, and until this is resolved at the OLRB, we cannot negotiate with the Hospital. The terms of our Collective Agreement however remain in effect. The end result is we will have to wait until the ONA application is resolved before we can negotiate and receive these increases.

I was to attend the OLRB last week on this issue, but ONA cancelled. I am awaiting an update from our lawyers as to when we are to meet again. Your patience is appreciated, but I am just as frustrated as you with the lack of progress.

Yours in solidarity,

Dave Murphy, President
CUPE Local 7800

ATTENTION MEMBERS – The SMOKE FREE policy at Hamilton Health Sciences begins January 1, 2011.

For anyone who would like information to assist them in getting through the day once this policy is in place, please email smokefree@hhsc.ca

ATTENTION ALL CUPE MEDITECH USERS!

DO NOT, AT ANY TIME, ACCESS ANYONE'S MEDICAL INFORMATION!

DO NOT GO INTO ANY SCREEN ON THE COMPUTER THAT IS PRECEDED BY THE CONFIDENTIALITY SCREEN, UNLESS YOU HAVE AUTHORIZATION. BY AUTHORIZATION, WE MEAN YOU, AS AN EMPLOYEE, HAVE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THAT PATIENT’S CARE.

DO NOT LOOK UP FRIENDS, NEIGHBOURS, FAMILY, CO-WORKERS, MANAGERS, SUPERVISORS, HUMAN RESOURCES PERSONNEL, OR YOUR OWN MEDICAL INFORMATION.

IF YOU DO SO, AND IT COMES TO THE ATTENTION OF THE HOSPITAL, YOUR EMPLOYMENT WILL BE TERMINATED!

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On Tuesday, November 10, 2009, the Hospital met with the Union to advise us they were changing five vacant Full Time Environmental Aide positions of 22.50 hours per week. The Hospital is now making these five 7.50 hours per week and five 15 hour per week positions.

The weekend of November 14, 2009, rumours were circulating that the Union was aware of these changes, but doing nothing about it—THIS IS GROSSLY INCORRECT!!

In future, please contact the Union office if you need information or have questions...DON’T LISTEN TO RUMOURS!!