Civista Medical Center is in ongoing contract negotiations with its registered nurses who are represented by the Service Employees International Union, the largest labor union in North America.

Civista’s nurses are part of SEIU Local 1199. Core demands being made by the nurses’ union include excessive pay raises, maintaining higher than market premium pay programs, and annual leave benefits.

Civista, as part of its good faith negotiations over the past few months, has made major concessions. It has made an offer with no take-backs that maintains the nurses’ above-market premium pay program, annual leave, and an increase to base pay with step increases that will result in a 3.25% increase to the nursing payroll for each of the next three years. This offer is extremely generous, and unheard of in today’s economic climate, when many government workers and private sector employees have gone without any pay increases for the past few years. This year the federal government’s pay raise is expected to be well below one percent.

Despite this the nurses voted on Wednesday, March 14, to authorize picketing and a possible strike if the union’s demands are not met. As Charles County’s only hospital and a not-for-profit organization, Civista has a fiduciary and civic duty to manage the hospital, a valuable community asset, in a manner that balances the provision of quality health care with the need to maintain a financially viable organization capable of providing the highest level of care possible.

Civista has entered into these negotiations responsibly and has strived to treat all of its employees fairly and equitably which is reflected in the proposal made to the nurses’ union. Civista firmly believes its compensation proposal to the nurses’ union bargaining committee is both fair and equitable. Despite this year’s strong financial performance the hospital is still recovering from prior operating losses. We need to plan for possible cuts in federal government funding to comply with the new health care law and reduced rates set for hospital services by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission.

The only disagreements on the table are union demands for increased compensation above and beyond what Civista has offered. This is not a staffing issue. Civista has not made any staff reductions and employs a staffing model in line with industry norms. The hospital routinely uses agency nurses to backfill when staff are unavailable to work. The nursing vacancy rate at the hospital is a low four percent.

In the event of a strike by the nurses’ union, Civista is well prepared to bring in highly trained, skilled registered agency nurses to staff the hospital. There will be no impact on patient care and the hospital will be open and fully operational.

Civista is committed to achieving a fair contract for all parties involved, one that supports the Medical Center’s ability to provide quality and affordable care and also allows us to attract and retain the best nurses in our community.