Hundreds of nurses, certified nursing assistants and other Tenet hospital workers in Florida are starting the new year with a new contract. Contracts at all seven facilities represented by 1199SEIU were negotiated and settled over the past few months thanks to the hard work of the bargaining team.  They stood strong and united for good contracts that guarantee across-the-board wage increases and the ability to review staffing levels at the hospitals.

Last summer, workers raised concerns about staffing levels with local hospital executives, and even traveled to Tenet’s corporate office in Texas to bring their concerns to the CEO and hand deliver safer staffing petitions with 1,300 signatures. Subsequent bargaining sessions paved the way for new language that was added to the new contract.  The new contracts require hospitals to share their matrices with the union, and to make them available in every staffing unit.

“I’m very glad we were able to make improvements, especially when it comes to staffing,” said RN Helen Scaracelli. “It’s really important to see the staffing matrix so that we’ll have a reference guide to address any issues on a day to day basis.”

“We worked very hard and diligently to get important issues addressed and a lot of them have been,” said Clark Buchan, a Hyperbaric Technician. “I am proud of the progress we made. We were able to achieve our goals by working together.”