The University of Kansas Hospital and the Kansas University Nurses Association so far have been unable to reach an agreement regarding new contracts for hospital nurses.
The two groups filed a petition for a declaration of impasse with the Kansas Public Employee Relations Board. The petition states that after 15 total negotiating sessions, both sides have reached a point where neither is willing to go further and they seek a mediator to help negotiate a resolution.
“Counsel for both parties … agreed that further negotiations would not be useful or meaningful and therefore, have jointly declared an impasse in negotiations,” the filing states.
Union-member nurses rejected the hospital’s contract offer last week because they said management demands would result in “significant cuts in most nurses’ salaries.”
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“We have expressed to the Hospital Authority our concern that their treatment of its top-flight nursing staff will drive excellent nurses away,” KUNA President Emily Harvey said in a statement. “We work at KU Hospital because we love the work, and we love our patients whose illnesses require the best, most advanced treatments. Our patients deserve the best, and our communities do too – and that is something for which we will always fight.”
Dennis McCulloch, director of public and government relations for the hospital, said it was important to note that union leadership initially agreed to the contract changes, but when it was put to a vote it was rejected by the union’s members.
“Hospital leadership has pledged to do everything to maintain the high level of patient care and to avoid the layoffs other hospitals locally and nationally have gone through in the last several months,” hospital representatives said in an earlier statement.
The KU Hospital nursing staff will hold an informational picket at 9 a.m. Tuesday on 39th Street between State Line Road and Rainbow Boulevard.
Date: Nov 11, 2013