Nurses gain support at HealthSource picket

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/nurses_gain_support_at_healths.html

by Jill Armentrout/The Saginaw News
Tuesday January 08, 2008, 12:37 PM

A Saginaw County leader who helps oversee HealthSource Saginaw has a simple explanation for acrimonious relations between a newly formed nurses union and bosses there.

"Management treats people awful," said Saginaw County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Cheryl M. Hadsall, a member of the hospital board and a Birch Run Democrat, during a Monday rally. "We need to give nurses what they deserve. That's why I fight during the meetings."

Representatives from a dozen unions supported nurses who have sought a contract for 15 months. About 150 people joined the informational picket during three hours in front of the county-owned hospital at 3340 Hospital in Saginaw Township, leaders of United Steelworkers Local 12075 said.

Negotiations between representatives of the 70 registered nurses and hospital management began in October 2006.

In addition to improving wages and benefits, the nurses seek to increase staffing to advance patient care and safety, said Leslie J. Curtis of Pittsburgh, international healthcare council coordinator for the steelworkers union.

The starting salary for HealthSource's registered nurses is $22 per hour, Curtis said, about $2 less than the average starting pay for nurses countywide.

FULL story at link.