Nurses who work at the University of Michigan Health System ratified a new three-year contract, the union announced Wednesday.
The contract provides the "vast majority" of the 3,800 members of the U-M Professional Nurse Council with salary increases of at least 3.5 percent a year, said Fred Vocino, labor relations representative from the Michigan Nurses Association, which assists the U-M nurses' bargaining unit.
Some nurses will see wage increases of more than 25 percent over the three-year duration of the contract, the union said.
About 2,400 votes were cast, said Vocino. The contract was ratified by the union membership with about 51 percent voting in favor of it. "It was a close vote," Vocino said.
John Armelagos, president of the U-M nurse council, said all nurses will receive pay increases. At the end of the contract, nurses at the top of the pay scale will earn typical salaries of $82,000 to $86,000 a year, he said.
"Those nurses who were at the max will be among the highest paid registered nurses in the area," said Armelagos in a voice mail message.
Deborah Childs, chief human resource officer at the U-M Health System, was not available for an interview Wednesday, but released a statement: "We are pleased with the agreement that was reached with a collaborative, interest-based approach. We have established wage and benefit packages that we believe will attract new nurses to UMHS and retain our current valued nurses even as we face the challenge of nursing shortages and increased competition."
Reporter Dave Gershman can be reached at 734-994-6818 or dgershman@annarbornews.com.
New language in the contract establishes a standard limit on mandatory overtime for many nurses. Nurses cannot be required to work more than eight hours of overtime in a month, said Vocino.
U-M also agreed to a reprieve from a pending change in health care costs. U-M agreed that nurses will continue to pay the same percentage of health care premiums as they do now, through the duration of the contract, which ends in July 2011. Nurses will see small changes in co-pays.
Top U-M administrators had announced in September that all employees and retirees would pay 30 percent of their aggregate health care costs, up from 20 percent today. That change is scheduled to take place in 2010 but could be phased in over time. A committee is studying how to do it - such as by raising health care premiums, or co-pays, and adjusting deductibles, and if so, by how much.source
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