Nurses call union vote attention plea

Donna Ketterer wants a contract. Without it, she says she and other registered nurses at St. Francis Medical Center can be fired, reassigned or demoted for any reason or no reason at all.

And when Madonna Farrow clocked out on Friday, she had worked 130 hours for the previous two weeks. She does it because they ask -- and because there is a nationwide nursing shortage -- but she said she doesn't think a nurse should have to work that much.

The reasons a group of registered nurses at St. Francis Medical Center are pushing for a union are varied, but they all stem from two shared beliefs -- that their pleas to management have gone unheeded for years and that it has created a situation that has hurt care for their patients.

"I've known people who have had issues, taken it to management and were ignored," said emergency room nurse Jan Parker. "I've got the greatest boss in the world, but it's not like that everywhere in the hospital."

Not enough nurses

The nurses who will vote yes for the union during the hospital-wide vote April 4 and 5 say the hospital has added to the problem by not attracting new nurses or retaining the ones they have by not keeping salaries competitive.

Hospital officials, however, say everyone is feeling the pinch because the nursing shortage is a nationwide trend and that their benefits and pay are comparable.

"I think a union would complicate their issues," said Dusty Rhodes, vice president of human resources. "It would just create another step as far as the communication process. So no, we don't see them as necessary here."

Rhodes also said he takes exception to the notion that care at St. Francis has suffered.

"Other hospitals in the area, particularly St. Louis, have the same vacancy rate or higher," he said. "The shortage is everywhere, so it's just not true that the care here is substandard. We feel our care is excellent."

If staffing is the problem -- there are 387 registered nurses at St. Francis and 30 job openings -- then salary, benefits and incentives are at the core. The nurses say it's not about money, it's about health care. Nurses seeing too many patients can't offer the best care to their patients, they say.

But to keep the nurses higher salary, better benefits and more help is going to be necessary, and they believe a union can deliver.

Rhodes said the pay is comparable to St. Louis wages. He said that 2001 data they've collected shows the average wage rate for St. Louis was $19.96 an hour. For that same year, the wage rate at St. Francis was $19.90.

The current average RN wage at St. Francis is $20.45 an hour, Rhodes said. St. Louis numbers for today are not available until late April, Rhodes said. He said he expects the average wage rate at St. Francis will rise in July, when adjustments are made.

"So I think we're doing pretty good," Rhodes said. "We're paying our nurses a competitive wage."

Traveling nurses

The higher wages that the pro-union nurses are talking about, Rhodes said, are traveling nurses, who are contracted by an agency. They make a higher rate of pay, he said -- sometimes as much as $50 an hour -- to travel and fill in for hospitals who need nurses.

But that is only for temporary nurses who are pitching in. St. Francis even uses nurses like that in a pinch.

But Nancy Parker, the union organizer for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655, disputes Rhodes' figures. She said starting pay for a nurse, based on polling they've done, is $13. She said there are also nurses who have been there many years who don't make $20 an hour.

"The math doesn't work out," Parker said. "I don't understand his figures. I'm not privy to his payroll records, but we've talked to many nurses and the average is much lower than that."

She said they estimate that there is an average of a $4 an hour difference between St. Louis nurses and St. Francis nurses, and she said they are not referring to traveling nurses.

Pam Hiett, a St. Francis RN for 10 years, said the fact that people are leaving to go elsewhere is proof that wages at St. Francis are lower than other places.

"People are leaving after 10, 25 years to go to higher-paying jobs," Hiett said. "They need to do something for retention. It's a never-ending cycle."

Hiett said she works longer than scheduled at least three of her four 10-hour days. That doesn't take in consideration call days, when a nurse can't leave until the cases are finished.

"Some days, we can be hit pretty hard," she said.

Jan Parker said he often eats in his unit because he's too busy to go the break room. He said nurses see more patients than they should be expected to handle.

In the ER, he said, their daily average is 72 patients and a shift is typically made up of four nurses.

"Six patients at once may not seem like a lot to a layperson, but it is if you're trying to give complete care," he said.

In black and white

For Hiett, she said, it's mostly about getting a contract.

"Physicians and hospital administrators have contracts in black and white," she said. "If we had that, we'd know what the rules are. Everybody's treated equally that way."

Ketterer, who works in progressive care, agreed.

"That way we'd have something to back us up," she said.

Ketterer thinks her raises have been a bit skimpy, too. She makes a little more than $18 an hour, but started out 12 years ago making $10.10.

Farrow said it would be worth the union dues, which union representatives have said would be no more than the $35 a month and perhaps less.

"We just want a voice," she said. "It seems worth it to me. We've been trying to change things here at St. Francis for a long time. If a union can help us, good."

Raises shouldn't be based on peer evaluations, and should be a standard amount, she said.

She wants something in writing, too.

"If we make a mistake because we're overworked, they can just fire us?" she said. "That's not right. There should be somebody we can turn to."

Rhodes said if the union passes, the hospital will be obligated to negotiate a contract with the union. But he said a management rights clause would be worked into any contract.

"That would make sure we retain the rights to run the hospital and meet the needs of our patients," he said. "We'd never give that up."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137