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Flushing Hospital nurses protest health, salary terms of contracts

By Scott Sieber

“We are the lowest-paid nurses in the whole city,” said New York State Nurses Association representative Mary Lou Cahill. “Nurses here over the last couple of years have put up $4 million in givebacks to this hospital for health benefits.”The givebacks, she said, were assumed by the nurses in good faith to help the facility get back on its feet after it pulled out of bankruptcy in 2001 and nurses were supposed to receive the money back.Nurses at Flushing Hospital have been working since the beginning of June 2005 without a contract and have negotiated with the hospital for months to no avail. The protest, they said, was an informational picket “to let the public know that we're not going to take it anymore,” Cahill said.Sticking points concern health care contributions and salary increases. Salaries currently start at around $57,000, while the nurses said other hospitals pay about $62,000 to start.A spokesman for Flushing Hospital said the facility could not discuss details of the negotiation process, but the talks were scheduled to continue all day and all night on Wednesday.”This is the process and we will come to an agreement,” he said.If a resolution is not reached by Feb. 28, nurses may also lose their health care benefits on March 1 because they say the hospital management let their health care benefits expire by not paying NYSNA fees”It's always been a nice place to work,” said Tracey Kavanagh, a nurse at the hospital for 25 years. “There are excellent nurses here at a time of a nursing shortage, but the hospital is not negotiating fairly. The nurses take care of everybody, but there is nobody taking care of the nurses.”State Assemblyman Jimmy Meng (D-Flushing) sent a representative to the rally to express his support of the nurses.”I am extremely concerned about the potential adverse impact this will have on our patients,” he said. “We want to make sure that no situation arises where nurses leave Flushing Hospital, nor a strike occurs.”Reach reporter Scott Sieber by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.