2018 Union Plus Scholarships

The Union Plus Education Foundation is now receiving applications for their 2018 Scholarship Program. The awards range from $500 to $4,000.


The application deadline is Tuesday, January 31, 2018.


This is a competitive scholarship, and applicants are evaluated according to academic ability, social awareness, financial need and appreciation of labor. A GPA of 3.0 or higher is recommended.
Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible. The Scholarship Program is open to current and retired members of unions participating in any Union Plus program (e.g., AFSCME), their spouses and their dependent children (as defined by IRS regulations). At least one year of continuous union membership by the applicant, applicant's spouse or parent (if applicant is a dependent). The one year membership minimum must be satisfied by May 31, 2018. Past applicants may re-apply.
The applicant must be accepted into a U.S. accredited college or university, community college, technical or trade school at the time the award is issued. Awards must be used for the 2018 - 2019 school year. You do not have to purchase any Union Plus product or participate in any Union Plus program to be eligible.
Applicants should note that the application requires you to list the national or international union name, local union number, local union's address, phone number and the name of the local union President or Business Manager.  You need this information for your union, your spouse's union or your parent's union (if you are a dependent).  If you or your family members are affiliated with multiple unions you must list this information for all.
As a member of SHARE, you are also a member of our parent organization, AFSCME, a qualifying union. Please note that the “local number” for SHARE on the hospital-side is AFSCME Local 3900. The SHARE hospital-side co-presidents are Bobbi-Jo Lewis and Rita Caputo.
For more details, and to access the online application dashboard, please see the Union Plus Scholarship website.

Overtime Opportunities for Some SHARE Members during Epic Conversion Weekends



Many SHARE members recently received an email from the hospital describing an "all-hands-on-deck" plea for help to manually input appointment and registration information into Epic, and to validate appointment and registration information that is electronically converted into Epic.
No one is required to come in on their weekend off, but the success of the Epic launch requires this step. The hospital encourages participation, and wants your help.  

To be eligible, participants must work in qualified job roles as listed in this link, and have completed appropriate training sessions prior to attending the Conversion Weekend. The hospital notes that these weekend events will provide useful experience before Epic goes live. Incentives offered for SHARE members include:  

  1. Qualified SHARE members can participate in the hospital's Epic Conversion and be paid Overtime (if they work more than 40 hours that week, or more than 8 hours that day). The weekend pay differential of $2.50 per hour will also be applied, as per the SHARE contract.
  2. Free on-site parking, lunch, and beverages will be provided.
  3. SHARE members commuting from off-site locations (non-Worcester campuses, such as Barre, Tri-River, etc.) will be paid the federal mileage rate, according to the SHARE Contract Agreement. (Currently 53.5 cents/mile.)

The work must be done on specific weekends in September, at 100 Front Street in
Worcester, in preparation for the October 1 Epic Go-Live event.  

For the Appointment Conversion weekend, September 9-10, the hospital needs 400 participants from 8 am to 5 pm.

For the Registration and Referral Conversion Weekend, September 16-17, 340 participants will be needed.  

To request a copy of the hospital's email regarding Epic Conversion, or to ask questions, please contact EpicScheduling@umassmemorial.org

A Strong Start for Unit Based Teams

The first ever UBT Co-Lead Peer-Learning event opened with SHARE Union organizer Janet Wilder thanking everyone in the room. Janet said that the newly defined relationship between SHARE members and managers is the most important language in our contract as we aim to improve the culture of our hospital. She explained that Unit-Based Teams are the cornerstone of that agreement, the most concrete and hopeful effort toward changing how it feels to work here.

Janet is the SHARE Tri-Chair of our Labor-Management Partnership Council, along with Bart Metzger, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Jeff Smith, Chief Operating Officer,

who also

kicked off the

meeting by talking about the importance of UBTs. Jeff Smith said that involving front-line staff in fixing the problem is better than the alternative: “I could give you an answer quickly, but it would be a bad solution.”

The first UBT Peer Learning Session brought together UBT Co-Sponsors and Co-Leads from SHARE, along with their management counterparts, as well as representatives from CITC, HR, and UMMC Executive Leadership. They came together to compare notes about the challenges and successes so far in the first wave of Unit Based Teams

As the hour developed, it became clear to everyone in the room that, across the board, the Unit-Based Teams are off to a productive and promising start. Each UBT has selected one or two substantial problems to tackle in their areas. They've defined their goals, and have begun measuring the effectiveness of their ideas.

SHARE Member and Lead Cardiac Catheterization Technologist, Sue Maddalena, describes how their UBT disregarded the advice that teams should avoid tackling the hardest problems first. They're seeing early successes as they work to improve the start times of their cases.   

Each UBT explained very different situations, different approaches, and different results thus far, even between the two Prescription Centers involved, on both the University and Memorial campuses. Nonetheless, common trends appeared throughout. Communication in areas with UBT's has improved, sometimes considerably. That communication is helping the day-to-day work go more smoothly, and improving the work culture.

In Primary Care, they're kicking butt and collecting data. Where employees were previously frustrated with walk-ins, they're now opportunities to collect data to fix the problem. Rita Caputo (SHARE Co-President, pictured above left) tracks the progress of their system improvements. 

SHARE member and Ambulatory Services Rep Mary Misiaszek said that, in her area, she had encountered one particularly meaningful new improvement: deeper respect. In addition, she said different parts of the clinic now "appreciate what everybody did, because we didn't know what everybody did before."

Mary noted, however, that one of the major challenges they faced was just understanding one another, since each kind of work in the hospital involves its own jargon and specialized language. As an ASR, her understanding of the distinction between words like "rapid" and "stat" differs from some co-workers, who use those words within the boundaries of defined clinical guidelines. 

The hospital's

Center for Innovation and Transformational Change

 often came up in the discussion, with participants noting the importance of the role of CITC in providing common language for discussing improvement.

SHARE member Kim Latrobe, a Technologist in the Surgical Vascular Lab, says that her co-workers are more willing to speak up about problems now, and more optimistic about the way that management will consider their ideas. 

Some in the room commented that their department staff had found it meaningful to see SHARE and hospital leadership coming together around the Unit Based Teams. Although SHARE members have experienced many different initiatives aimed at improvement over the years, this feels different. Working through issues in a process where all participants have equal voice creates mutual accountability and improved chance of continual improvement. 

Bart Metzger, UMass Memorial Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, said that hospital CEO Eric Dickson increasingly references the importance of UBT's in meetings among hospital executives. Metzger describes the function of the UBTs toward the hospital's goals of transforming and humanizing our institution, and turning the traditional management paradigm on its head.

In the recent months, the participants in these first UBT's have learned a lot about how to launch a UBT successfully . . . much of it by trial-and-error. During the Peer Learning Session, many participants thanked the UBT Coaches and their own Co-Sponsors, who have been supporting the teams with tools and strategies for tackling big problems productively. 

Although the UBT model involves a lot of planning, there have definitely been surprises in their initial experiments. The participants recommended even more training and more planning time, and encouraged the Coaches and Co-Sponsors to begin working with the next wave of UBT's as soon as possible, even though those teams won't be launching until after Epic Go-Live. We look forward to hearing more from this first group of UBT's.

SHARE Staff Organizers Janet Wilder and Will Erickson collect ideas and advice for improving the launch of the next wave of Unit Based Teams

The hour-long meeting brought together union members and management from the University Campus and the Memorial Campus, not to mention a labor-management pair who commuted in from our hospital's Tri-River facility in Uxbridge. 

It wasn't easy to coordinate a time when so many could be away from their desks and workstations.

W

e know that whenever employees step away from the front lines to meet, it puts more pressure on those who remain in the departments to care for patients. We recognize those of you who are working in areas with UBT's for getting this important project started in such a strong way

. Already hundreds of SHARE members have helped move the work forward. Thank you. 

A NEW SHARE UNION: UMASS MEMORIAL--MARLBOROUGH HOSPITAL

For those of you who haven’t heard, we’re lending support to employees at our sister location in Marlborough who wish to join SHARE. Impressed by what we’ve accomplished, they’ve come to us with a request to join in. If you have friends at UMass Memorial’s Marlborough Hospital, we could use your help connecting them with our union.

A Rising Tide

SHARE believes that everyone benefits when workers have a say. We’re making work better for ourselves, and we want our colleagues up the road to have that opportunity, too. What’s good for Marlborough Hospital is good for UMass Memorial, and for the Central Massachusetts community.

SHARE is a union unique to UMass Memorial and UMass Medical School, tailored to our needs here. Our region is distinct, with its own economic challenges. We know that inequality is hurting us. Without unions to advocate for middle-class wages, employers alone dictate the market rate.

Our connections make us strong, and we want to strengthen and be strengthened by the inclusion of the hospital’s Marlborough location, to enlist the help of our colleagues toward improving the area where we live and work.

Everyone Should Be Free to Participate

We’ve been cultivating our own organization for twenty years at UMass Memorial. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about negotiating, and about the need to deepen our understanding of how to run a hospital . . . how to run *our* hospital.

Those of us who have been here since our union’s beginnings will tell you that our hospital is a very different place now from what it was then. We don’t suggest that those ambitions are easily achieved: we all have important day jobs, and having a union doesn’t make the day-to-day go away. We’re still working hard to make our hospital the kind of place we want it to be.

But we want our friends in Marlborough to know that our SHARE union gives us opportunities to compare notes, to talk and think together, to build structures for making improvements. Like our hospital’s senior administration, we believe in the mission of our hospital. We also believe that a labor-management partnership can make our hospital vibrant and resilient. We can’t do it without each other. We believe that the same is true in Marlborough.

We Want to Share Values and Strength

There are 2700 of us (plus our 500 friends in SHARE at UMass Medical School), and our relationships with our employer are extremely complex. As a matter of principle, we maintain kind and respectful conversations with those in management roles. We have support and assistance from in-house SHARE staff organizers who help this happen. Perhaps most importantly, we can have those conversations safely because our union affords us an independent source of power. Our friends at Marlborough need this, too. They deserve to negotiate their own agreements with their hospital leaders.

Let’s Connect

If you have friends at Marlborough Hospital, please let them know about your experience as a SHARE member. They may want to know about raises and benefits, but they may also want to know what we’re trying to do to improve the culture in our hospital, how we’re able to participate in more decisions, and how we work to improve the quality of care for patients.

If you can help connect SHARE Organizers with friends who work at Marlborough Hospital, let us know. If you can help us make an introduction, or would like to know more about what we’re doing, please call the SHARE office (508-929-4020) and leave a message on the voicemail for one of the Marlborough SHARE Organizers to call you back.

Come Cheer the Sox with SHARE: Tickets Available Now

Let's Go SHARE!
Labor Day this year is going to be a lot of fun. The Red Sox will have just swept the Yankees (right?), the weather’s going to be perfect, and SHARE will be a week away from its 20th birthday.

We’re looking forward to it, too, because we reserved a couple nice blocks of seating for Union Night at Fenway, when the Sox host the Blue Jays . . .

  • Date: Labor Day 2017 (Monday, September 4th)
  • Time: 7:10 pm
  • Place: Fenway Park!
  • Cost: $30 in the bleachers, or $15 in the upper bleachers.

Seems like a pretty decent way to round out the Summer and honor the contributions that workers have made to our country. In our section, we’ll be sitting with members our sister NEOP unions, including SHARE at UMass Medical School, HUCTW (the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers), and USW (the Union of Social Workers at Cambridge Health Alliance).

To sit in our block and take advantage of the discounted union rate, purchase tickets directly from this Red Sox website. Your family and friends are welcome to join in, too. Deadline for purchasing tickets is July 31, 2017.

Questions? Please contact Bobbi-Jo Lewis.  

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats: Worcester City Council Votes to Support Increases to the Minimum Wage

President Kennedy popularized the expression that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” the idea that if the general economic conditions of community improve, everyone in that community benefits. Of course, these kinds of economic tides don’t raise themselves.


Khrystian King.JPG
City Councilor Khrystian King presents his
proposal to support an increase to the minimum wage
One of the most difficult aspects of any contract negotiations is the raise. How much should employees make? Most employers rely heavily on the idea of market rates and industry standards in order to develop their answer to that question. There’s a logic to that. And, at the same time, market rates and industry standards aren’t designed to help people lead better lives.
According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, a living wage for a family with two adults and two children in Worcester County requires each parent to make at least $15.81 per hour. The success of SHARE and other unions in our hospital to maintain solid wages and benefits work to benefit Central Massachusetts as a whole, raising the tide, and normalizing a livable income.
One factor in improving the economic climate, the minimum wage, is a relatively recent idea. It has its own fascinating history, its origins involving exploding bakeries, a blue eagle, and a guy who may or may not have been drunk. The minimum wage is designed to increase wages up the scale, expanding and strengthening the middle class. Additionally, proponents argue that, for employers, higher wages mean more efficient workers and less employee turnover, making it easier to recruit and retain workers and helping their bottom line. And, that when workers have more money in their pockets, they spend it at small businesses in their neighborhoods, helping those local businesses grow and create more jobs.

SHARE Staff Organizer Jana Hollingsworth joined others at a recent Worcester City Council meeting to promote an increase to the minimum wage in Massachusetts. A number of residents presented to the Council, describing how an increase to the minimum wage would improve their families' lives. The Council voted to back a minimum wage increase to $15 by the year 2021, a measure that would directly raise the income of 40% of Worcester residents who currently make less than that, according to one figure cited at the meeting.
The increase must still be voted on in the State Legislature, in the form of House Bill 2365 and Senate Bill 1004. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that, “under the legislation, the minimum wage would increase by $1 annually, starting Jan. 1, 2018, until it reaches $15 in 2021. The minimum wage would then be adjusted each year to rise with the cost of living.”
Worcester City Council.JPG
SHARE Staff Organizer Jana Hollingsworth's view of the City Council Chamber

Of course, another way to participate in shaping a more favorable economic climate, one that promotes fairness and well-being, is through a union. Research shows that declines in unionization are linked to increasing inequality. At the same time, researchers find that a disproportionate number of women, African Americans, and Latinos currently make less than fifteen dollars an hour.

Find Help When Help Is Needed

We all know that a personal crisis can happen to anyone, and when we least expect it. SHARE is committed to helping each other get through the worst. In addition to their day-to-day job responsibilities working for our hospital, SHARE Reps help co-workers navigate problems at work. Often, those challenges are interwoven with hardships outside of the workplace.


Some elected SHARE Reps choose to be trained in Problem Solving skills, and can direct co-workers to helpful resources. Of course, all of us can help each other when hardship strikes. Below is a list of resources that you can offer to friends and co-workers at a critical moment:
EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Our own hospital’s Employee Assistance Program is an extremely valuable resource. Their services are free to employees of UMass Memorial and UMass Medical School, and completely confidential. EAP assists employees and their families with:
  • job-related stress
  • drug and alcohol abuse
  • child care issues
  • marital conflicts
  • elder care needs
  • financial difficulties
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • emotional trauma
  • domestic violence
  • legal concerns
The EAP is located very near the main University campus, at 382 Plantation Street. You can also call them at 800-322-5327.
***
2-1-1
Just as you would call 9-1-1 in an emergency, United Way of Central Massachusetts has partnered with other United Ways across the state to establish a free, confidential hotline to help with non-life threatening needs. 2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that connects callers to information about health and human services available in their community. It serves as a resource for finding government benefits and services, non-profit organizations, support groups, volunteer opportunities, donation programs, and other local resources. Calling 2-1-1 is:
  • Free
  • Confidential
  • Available 24 hours-a-day / 7 days-a-week
  • Multi-lingual
  • Available immediately during times of crisis, to field calls regarding the event and to direct callers to services most appropriate for their needs
  • Is an easy way to find or give help in your community
  • Maintains the integrity of the 9-1-1 system saving that vital community resource for life and death emergencies
These benefits are also available online at the Mass 211 website
***
SUICIDE HOTLINES
If you or someone you know feels suicidal, get help immediately. The suicide.org website provides a number of local and national hotlines.
***
HOMELESS SHELTERS
If someone you know needs a safe place to go, shelterlistings.org provides a list that includes local emergency shelters, homeless shelters, day shelters, transitional housing, residential drug/alcohol rehabilitation programs, supportive housing and permanent affordable housing.

***
FREE HEALTHCARE
The Worcester Free Clinic Coalition is a group of Worcester Free Medical Programs that provide free or low-cost  primary healthcare services to those who are uninsured or underinsured in the greater Worcester area.


***
GIVE A LITTLE BIT OF YOURSELF
You might consider seeking out ways to help. When you give blood, you help to save the lives of patients’ right here in our community, including those undergoing cancer treatment, accident victims, and transplant recipients. You can literally give this important part of yourself at our hospital’s Blood Donor Center.


Last year, Worcester County Food Bank volunteers assisted in distributing food to 89,000 people in Worcester County. You can learn how to help at the WCFB website. And, to learn about other ways to help locally, check out the website for the United Way Volunteer Center.
***
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
To best help others, we need to be in good shape to do so. Headlines increasingly report that mindfulness practice literally strengthens your brain. Many of the scientific studies that support these findings come from our own pioneering Center for Mindfulness, which offers a number of opportunities for learning and practice.


You can also listen to this fun interview with distinguished psychologist Dr. Phil Lombardo, in which he describes, among other things, exercises to help you be prepared to do the right thing when heroic acts are needed.
***
SHARE CAN HELP

Of course, the SHARE Reps and Organizing Staff have a lot of experience solving problems, and are tapped into a broad network of helpful and professional caregivers of all kinds. Just find your nearest SHARE Rep in your workplace who can help direct you (a list of the newly-elected reps will be listed to this blog soon), or call the SHARE office: 508-929-4020. If you have to leave a message, please know that we triage calls regularly during regular business hours, and do our best to return messages as soon as we can.

No Voting Required This Year for SHARE Rep and Executive Board Members

This year we received more than 60 nominations for SHARE Rep and Executive Board, and there are enough positions for all the nominees. A vote is only held when there are more people running than there are positions to run for.

Congratulations to the new and returning SHARE representatives, who are now considered elected! Also, thank you to all of the nominators for honoring your co-workers by submitting their names for these important roles.

A list of all SHARE Reps and Executive Board members will be posted soon, right here on this blog.

Questions? Please call the SHARE office at 508-929-4020.

What Does a SHARE Rep Do?

SHARE leaders have a special role in our community. Together, we work to create one of the most important relationship networks in our hospital.

SHARE Reps discussing Unit-Based Teams
The main role of a SHARE Rep is to aid communication between members and the SHARE leadership. We continually share information to better understand what is happening across our workplaces, and to make our work better.

As a result, SHARE Reps do all kinds of things, depending on the needs and interests of our union and our members. Ultimately, if you become a SHARE Rep, you decide what to take on . . . each Rep has a different level of involvement. In the beginning, you should simply be prepared to meet new people, and to learn a lot of new things from others throughout the UMass Memorial community.
A SHARE Rep always has support. The SHARE organizing staff and experienced Reps are here to help. We provide training and individual coaching to help you develop new skills. Here’s a list of the kinds of projects that some SHARE Reps commonly do:
  • Meet and develop relationships with every person in their work area
  • Come to the monthly SHARE Rep Meetings
  • Provide information to co-workers, and to the EBoard and Organizers
  • Help other SHARE members to find help when they need it
  • Improve work processes and solve departmental problems
  • Lead and participate in Unit Based Teams
  • Bake for events
  • Participate in a web of support for other members in the unfortunate event of a layoff
  • Serve as a “witness” at a disciplinary meeting for a member
  • Distribute and collect surveys
  • Sign up new members on membership cards
  • Negotiate
There’s a whole lot more. The activities that SHARE Reps do are extremely important, and often a lot of fun. When new challenges arise, we figure things out together. And we know that important things get built just like anything else: one little brick at a time.

If you have questions about what SHARE reps do, please contact the SHARE Office (508-929-4020), or talk to a current SHARE rep.

New Acute Care Inpatient PCA Staffing Guidelines: Info Meetings & FAQ

SHARE members on the nursing floors have begun to implement the newly-negotiated Patient Care Associate (PCA) Guidelines.  This exciting new wave of improvements will help PCA’s better care for patients, and allow them to focus on the most meaningful aspects of their work.

The initial roll-out is being pioneered on the Memorial Campus on West 3, and on the University Campus on 6 East.

UMMC Associate Chief Nursing Officer Lisa Gillum and SHARE Co-President Bobbi-Jo Lewis will host the first of many informational discussions about the new guidelines. All staff on the Inpatient Floors are invited.

Acute Care Inpatient PCA Staffing
Informational Discussions
Friday April 21st
West 3 Breakroom
6:30a-7:30a & 2:30p-3:30p

***
Acute Care Inpatient PCA Staffing
FAQ

1.    What does this new language mean in our contract?
To work collaboratively with the RN and the unit team which will improve communication and provide quality patient care
2.    Who chooses how we do our assignments?

The PCA model at Memorial Campus is decided shift to  shift based patient needs and available staffing resources. The model will be reviewed at the start of the shift with the Unit Staff on the unit.

The University Campus will be decided by the Unit Staff that best meets the patient needs.  It will either be an assignment or geographical locations and/or tasks
Concerns about your assignment should be discussed with the Resource Nurse, Nurse Manager, Clinical Coordinator and/or Nursing Supervisor
3.    When is it going to start?
The first step is obtaining information of the assignments and tasking responsibilities on the PCAs on the unit.
The next step will be deciding the model for the unit by the unit team. Implementation should be completed by Mid-Summer (July 2017).
4.    Does this affect all PCA’s work?
The new language is currently for PCA’s on the acute care inpatient floors.
5.    Who is on this team that is making decisions about my work?
Since each inpatient floor has unique patients with special needs, the decisions should be decided through a joint effort between the  Unit Staff,  Nurse Manager, Clinical Coordinators.

The PCA’s and volunteer RN’s who will work together to roll-out the process, help problem solve and listen to concerns when a problem arises.   

6.    I want to be able to give good quality care. What if my assignment is still too much? And the patients aren’t getting the attention that they need from me?

Everyone’s goal is to provide  quality care to our patients.  If your assignment is too heavy and demanding then you should speak to the Resource Nurse and/or Nurse Manager to facilitate a discussion about the issues with the assignment.
You can also reach out to your SHARE organizer  and ask that the situation be followed up by  the committee listed in question 5. This committee’s goals is to  make sure that things are going smoothly and thoughtfully.
7.    Some will think that I can still do it all. What should I say?


You should say that "I want to give our patients the best care and I don’t feel that I am able to complete the delegated assignment/tasks. Is there another way that the work can be distributed?”

SHARE Representative and Executive Board Nominations Are Now Open

The nomination period for SHARE leaders is now open. If you would like to nominate yourself or a co-worker, you can read full details online. Current SHARE Reps who wish to continue to be Reps need to be nominated again this year. To be eligible, any nominated SHARE member must have paid dues for at least six months prior to the election, and must be nominated in writing by 5pm on Friday, April 28th.
(A version of the nomination letter has also been mailed to your home address. Please note that that version contains misprints regarding odd- and even-years, which have been corrected in this email.)
The Executive Board positions to be elected this year include:
  • 306 Belmont Street (Region A)
  • Memorial Locations, Nursing Floors & Emergency Department (Region B)
  • Memorial  Locations, Ambulatory Clinics (Region D)
  • University Locations, Technical & Diagnostic (Region C)
  • University Locations, Clerical & Other (Region E)
Additionally, all SHARE Representative positions are open for nominations. The full breakdown of regions can be found in the online copy of the nominations letter.
If there are too many candidates for the number of positions, elections will be held on Wednesday, May 31. If you have any questions, please call the SHARE office (508-929-4020).

Support the United Way with Chocolate and Adorableness!

You could
WIN
a lot of
CHOCOLATE!



Join SHARE and UMass Memorial in supporting the United Way by purchasing raffle tickets. SHARE will be hosting a table where you can enter to win either (or both!) of these exciting prizes:



  • A basket brimming with chocolate treats
  • A basket featuring a diaorama with one adorable handmade mouse (see photos below)

Contents of these gift baskets have been donated by members of the SHARE organizing staff. Raffle tickets cost one dollar each, with all proceeds going to support the United Way. You can enter to win at one of the following locations and times:

University Campus Cafeteria Thursday, April 13th 11:30-1:30

Memorial Campus Cafeteria Friday, April 14th 11:30-1:30

If you have questions, or work on another campus and can't come to our table to enter in person, please call the SHARE office (508-929-4020).

Handmade Mouse by Tracie Cahan
This could be yours!

SHARE Presents: Lunchtime Piano Performances, April 3-7

SHARE invites you
to celebrate Spring
with music.


Chopin, Liszt, Mozart and Rachmaninoff

performed by
Orvill Delatorre




Free and open to the public
UMASS School of Medicine Lobby
From Monday, April 3rd - Friday, April 7th
Playing from 11 - 1 pm
(unless other activity is scheduled at the area)


Orvill is a graduate of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Boston, MA, and is currently a student of Cornell University's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Class of 2019.


His mother, Elsa, is a hospital interpreter and member of SHARE


Union Member Audrey King on Unit-Based Teams at Kaiser Permanente



I met Audrey King during a recent trip to Washington DC. The visit continued SHARE's study of union-management partnership in the Kaiser Permanente healthcare network, and how participation makes things better for front-line employees.

Audrey has worked at Kaiser Permanente for 36 years. She has seen the change that Unit-Based Teams has brought to her work there. I thought Audrey had some great things to say, so I asked her if I could record her so SHARE members could hear what she had to say. (Sorry about the noise in the background of the cafeteria!)

Here's a little more about who Audrey is: She's a member of OPEIU Local 2 (one of three union locals representing employees at Kaiser Permanente in the Mid-Atlantic region). Together with the regional quality manager for the KP Labs, Audrey made a presentation to us at their Capitol Hill Medical Center about how the union and management co-sponsors help to make the UBTs successful. (It was cool that every presentation in our day-long visit was made in pairs: a union person and a manager.)





SHARE Field Report from Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill Medical Center


In early March, eight SHARE leaders and nine UMMHC management leaders visited Kaiser Permanente's Capitol Hill Medical Center in Washington DC. SHARE has been studying the Kaiser Permanente unions’ progress in transforming culture. And we’ve been negotiating ideas from their model with our own hospital leadership.

This trip, however, was our first opportunity to see the work at Kaiser Permanente firsthand, up close, in partnership. Together, we got the chance to meet with our Kaiser counterparts (union leaders with union leaders, HR with HR, surgical and clinical management with management.) One of the key themes of the day was that partnership, and the benefits of partnership, are only as strong as its unions: "I've worked in a lot of different ways. And labor management partnership is the best," one labor leader told us. "But never forget you're a union."

At Kaiser Permanente's Capitol Hill Medical Center:
Shenita Stewart (Pharmacy UBT Co-Lead, OPIEU Local 2),
Cliff Lovett (Pharmacy Manager & UBT Co-Lead),
and Wendy Williams (Improvement Advisor, UFCW Local 27)


PHARMACIES LEARNING from EACH OTHER

The cornerstone of our 2016 contract agreement, Unit-Based Teams, is based on a model that Kaiser and its unions pioneered a decade ago. We have launched our first six here at UMass Memorial in the last few weeks, and co-sponsors of those new Teams got to look under the hood at some established, long-running UBT’s in Washington.

Our contingent met directly with the co-leads of the Unit-Based Team from the Pharmacy at their Capitol Hill location. The two co-leads of the UBT, Shenita Stewart, a Pharmacy Technician and union member, and Clifford Lovett, the manager were proud of two highly successful improvement projects their department had worked on: getting prescriptions more quickly to patients, and increasing sales of Over-the-Counter drugs. For each project, their team experimented with improvements, systematically. They tried some things that didn’t work . . . and when they realized those ideas wouldn’t pan out, they quickly stopped. They landed on some things that really worked. 

 Shenita told us that some of her co-workers didn't believe that UBT would make a difference at first. She acknowledged that their department still has issues to work on, but says that morale is much higher, attendance is better, and she’s seen a lot of improvement in the culture.

PEDIATRIC SUBSPECIALTY UBT in ACTION 

Some SHARE and UMass Memorial folks got to sit-in on a UBT meeting in the Pediatric Subspecialty Clinics. "It was fascinating to see consensus decision-making in action," said Bobbi-Jo Lewis from SHARE. "The co-leads went around the group, asking what each person thought, before they went forward. The group agreed to take on a project to explore sending thermometers home with families, even though it was only important to some of the sub-specialties, because they decided to support each other."

WHEN the GAME CHANGES, CHANGE the GAME

Some Kaiser Permanente UBT’s involve patients directly in their Improvement Projects. For example, they might invite a patient with a particular complaint to come talk to the department. Lu Casa, a UFCW Local 400 union member and UBT Co-Lead in the Adult Medicine Department, described her department’s efforts to manage blood pressure rates at the population-level in their community. You can see about that for yourself in the video below. It’s a fun one . . .



BRINGING THE LEARNING HOME

In DC, we learned much more about how to start a UBT on the right foot, and to ensure that it is genuinely co-led by management and labor.  We also learned about the things the Kaiser unions have been able to achieve in partnership that they were not able to do through adversarialism.  

SHARE Co-President Rita Caputo said that her biggest regret about the trip was that they couldn’t stay longer and dig deeper into how the employees there go about solving particular problems. She really appreciated how open the staff were, “They were so efficient and thorough and knowledgeable, and completely willing to let us pick their brains.” It was apparent to Rita that their experience showed them what worked. “They’re normal, like us,” she said, “and they’ve figured out for themselves how to keep making things better.”

One of the side benefits of the trip was spending so much time with our management partners.  We returned to Massachusetts with a deeper appreciation of one another’s strengths and challenges, as well as a stronger sense that we can achieve more for our members and the people they care for if we approach one another as allies rather than adversaries.

SHARE and UMass Memorial manager Co-Leads and Sponsors with Kaiser Permanente management and union leaders


The AFSCME Free College Benefit, and Other Opportunities

The educational opportunities announced on this blog have been a big hit! These are available to you as a SHARE member, although they are not administered by SHARE. For details--including direct contact information for each--please find links below.

We're very interested to know more about your experience with these programs. Give us a holler in the SHARE office and let us know how it's going. And, also, if you come across other deals open to union members, please let us know. We'd love to help others take advantage, too.

Here's a quick roundup of the latest:

 AFSCME FREE COLLEGE BENEFIT

 This allows you and your family members to earn an Associate's Degree online, for free! Please note that the next set of class offerings through the  AFSCME Free College Benefit is about to begin, on March 20th. For more details, visit the AFSCME Free College website, or call the program directly at 888-590-9009.

2017 CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS AFL-CIO SCHOLARSHIP

Any SHARE members, or their children and grandchildren, who will be attending college for an undergraduate degree this Fall, are also eligible to apply for the Central Massachusetts AFL-CIO  Scholarship. The application deadline is April 28th.

 UNION PLUS

Union Plus is a nation-wide non-profit consumer benefits organization sponsored by the AFL-CIO. As a SHARE member, you qualify for their services, without any additional fees or memberships. Among other things, Union Plus negotiates volume deals on gifts, entertainment tickets, etc. They work to create deals for union members, on products made by union members. They'll begin accepting applications for next year's wave of Union Plus scholarships in July.


March 14 Storm Update

As of this morning, March 14th, the UMass Memorial Medical Center Command Center says that all departments at UMass Memorial are open and SHARE members are supposed to report to work. There are rumors that certain outpatient clinics or administrative areas are closed, but the official word from the Command Center is that everything is open.

Some managers in ambulatory clinics and clerical areas have talked to SHARE members about reducing staffing based on patient needs. The bottom line: You are supposed to come to work, unless you have talked to your manager about a different arrangement.

The SHARE contract section on Severe Weather (page 103) has more info here.

Info from the Hospital's emails to employees


Our patients are our first priority; all ambulatory, inpatient and outpatient services will remain open and staffed unless otherwise notified. Managers will reach out to outpatient staff in the event that outpatient services will be closed.

The Command Centers are open on the University and Memorial Campuses to support operations and staff during today’s storm. If you have any storm-related issues, please stop by the Command Centers or call: University Campus: ‪508-856-2815 and ‪508-856-6672
, Memorial Campus: ‪508-334-6688, Hahnemann Campus concerns: Call the University Campus Command Center at ‪508-856-2815 and ‪508-856-6672

Sleeping rooms and cots are available for staff who would like to stay overnight tonight and/or tomorrow night:
• Memorial Campus – Knowles Hall (from 4:30 pm Monday to noon Wednesday)
• University Campus – S2-352, S2-310 and Faculty Conference Room (from 5 pm Monday to 7 am Wednesday)
• Hahnemann Campus – Nemitz Conference Room (from 5 pm Monday to 7 am Wednesday)

Cafeterias will be open during regular business hours:
• Memorial Campus – Opening at 6:30 am and closing at 9:30 pm
• University Campus – Opening at 7 am and closing at 10 pm, and offers a stocked kiosk at the Pavilion Café until midnight
• Hahnemann Campus – Opening at 7 am and closing at 2:30 pm
• Arrangements have been made for food to be provided to PTRC staff.

Please refer to our Employee Emergency Preparedness Guide to help you prepare for reporting to work (see page 10), including packing any necessary medication, food, weather-appropriate footwear, a shovel and your phone charger.

Our grounds staff will be working diligently to keep walkways, hospital roadways and parking lots clear with the help of 10 plows and 28 shovelers for the next 24 to 48 hours. Shuttles will run as normal. Please take your time to drive safely to and from work.

If you have questions, please refer to the Severe Weather Policy or speak with your manager."


Unit-Based Teams: Fixing Healthcare, Making Work Better at Kaiser Permanente

Bart Metzger (UMass Memorial Senior Vice President
and Chief HR Officer), Hal Ruddick (Executive Director,
Kaiser Permanente Coalition of Unions), and
Janet Wilder (SHARE Organizer)
Hal Ruddick leads the union side of the biggest and most successful labor-management partnership in health care, and perhaps in all American industries. He’s the Executive Director of the Kaiser Permanente Coalitions of Unions, which represents 28 local unions and 115,000 union member employees at Kaiser Permanente. (SHARE has sister AFSCME union locals that represent employees at Kaiser Permanente and are part of the coalition.)
Hal Ruddick spoke at the monthly SHARE UMass Memorial Labor Management Partnership Council meeting, so we could learn from their experience.
To Ruddick, this is about fixing healthcare in America. The goal is high quality, affordable care for all, and the Kaiser unit-based teams (UBTs) and labor management partnership are working to get there.
Ruddick added that unions face many challenges right now, and that this is one vision for strengthening unions. Continuous improvement in healthcare through partnership is the foundation for good high quality union jobs.  He says that people choose to work in healthcare to make a difference, but sometimes the experience of working in healthcare drives the passion out of people. “Your work in creating UBTs is key to sustaining a sense of meaning in these jobs.”
One LMPC member asked about the Kaiser Permanente experience with the changing roles of managers and employees with UBTs. Do managers may feel they are being asked to give up control? Hal Ruddick explained that teams have a lot of tools to try to build consensus, but in the end of the day, managers can still manage and labor can still respond. Managers begin to realize that working together with their staff they can find solutions that help reach the managers’ goals. Ruddick says it’s a change for labor too: If you are part of designing a solution, then you own the solution and have to take some responsibility for it.

Questions or suggestions about this website? Email kirk.davis@theshareunion.org