By Brendan Browne
Nurses from Flushing Medical Center spent their lunch hour Monday picketing outside the hospital on the eve of contract negotiations to pressure administrators to boost their salaries and hire more nurses to alleviate a staff shortage.
Represented by the New York State Nurses Association, the nurses contend the hospital pays them about 8 percent less than other medical facilities and they are overworked, caring for as many as 11 patients during a shift.
“We need to see a salary increase to get them back up to market rate,” said Elaine Charpentier, a negotiator for the nurses. “Many women are (registered nurses) but are not working because the conditions are too hard” in hospitals like Flushing Medical Center.
Max Sklair, vice president of human resources at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, which owns Flushing Medical Center, said the hospital has already agreed to a 12 percent increase in pension contributions and benefits for the nurses. It has also offered the nurses a 3 percent hike in their salary in the first year of a new contract, another 3 percent the next year, and a 4 percent rise in what would be the final year of the agreement, he said.
“They’re making outlandish demands,” said Sklair. “They had a very rich contract. They had benefits that nurses in other parts of the city did not have… Now they’re asking us to give them a 35 to 40 percent wage and benefit increase.”
Working without a contract since Jan. 1, the nurses and the NYSNA were scheduled to meet with hospital management during the week to try to reach a new deal.
Under the last three-year contract, nurses had a starting salary of $50,800 and got a $800 raise each year, said Charpentier. That is lower than the $1,000 hike in yearly salary most nurses in the city get, she said.
A spokesman from NYSNA did not say how much the Flushing Hospital Center nurses wanted for a raise, but said it should be on a par with other hospitals. He also said the nurses were asking for more vacation and personal days.
The nurses and the NYSNA met with hospital management earlier this year but made no progress toward resolving differences on a new contract, a spokesman from NYSNA said.
The 382 registered nurses at Flushing Medical Center maintain that they made sacrifices to the hospital when it was struggling through bankruptcy and unable to hire an adequate number of workers, They accepted staffing shortages and a freeze on salaries for two years.
Jamaica Hospital took over Flushing Medical Center in 1999 and helped it to emerge from bankruptcy in 2000, Sklair said. Now, the nurses say, the hospital is in good financial standing, yet refuses to up their salaries and hire more nurses.
“For the past six years, they’ve taken little or no salary increases in order to help the hospital regain financial stability,” said Mark Genovese, a spokesman for NYSNA. “But even though the hospital is now on solid economic ground, management still isn’t willing to invest in improving patient care.”
Flushing Medical Center is not alone in its nursing shortage as many other hospitals throughout the nation struggle to fill the position. Still, the nurses at Flushing contend the situation in their hospital is worse because nurses who are willing to work are likely to go to a hospital that pays more.
Many nurses say a shortage makes conditions dangerous for patients as they have to too many duties.
“You’re running back and forth to each patient and you’re missing things there because you can’t devote enough time to each patient,” said Lori Samson, a nurse at Flushing Medical Center, who said she is often forced to work longer than her eight hour shift to finish all her duties.
“We want more nurses so the patients can get more care. It’s dangerous,” said Chenchen Wong, another nurse who was picketing.
Reach reporter Brendan Browne by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 155.
