On Wednesday, Dec. 21, nurses voted by 85% to ratify our new three-year contract with UPMC! I’m so proud of our negotiating committee and all the nurses across the hospital who stood strong and forced this multibillion-dollar corporation to invest in our hospital and community.
We had to fight for every single dollar of investment in this contract, which includes raises that are more than double what we’ve negotiated in the past. Here are the highlights:
- Minimum raises of nearly 14% over three years, with a career ladder that will bring some nurses to a total of nearly 28% in raises over three years.
- An 8% raise following ratification, including a 5% raise retroactive to November, which means an average $500 retroactive bonus for nurses; and
- A 3% wage increase in 2024, and a 2.75% increase in 2025;
- A new, simplified Accelerated Career Ladder with raises of up to 14%.
- 5% for step II; 4% for step III; and 5% for step IV);
- Inpatient and surgical nurses are eligible;
- Because UPMC refused to include outpatient nurses in the career ladder, we won protections against outpatient nurses being floated to inpatient, except the surgery center can go to OR;
- Discipline will no longer impact career ladder eligibility; and
- Nurses who have earned a wage increase from the previous or new career ladder don’t lose it.
- $3,000 in bonuses ($1K each year) for casual nurses who work at least 1,000 hours each year;
- Increased the start rate to $28 to help with recruitment;
- The hospital will assess nurses’ years of licensure and make base rate adjustments;
- Increased shift differential to $2.00;
- Increased charge pay to $1.50;
- Increased BS differential to $1.50;
- Created a night program differential of $2.00 on top of other differentials (only for nurses who work straight nights);
- Won time and a half for OR nurses held past their shift by more than an hour;
- Protected grandfathered PTO accrual;
- Strengthened layoff and recall language;
- Preserved the practice of only flexing FFT nurses during schedule creation. FFT nurses can choose whether to remain FFT or change to part-time or full-time; and
- Protected the float and downsizing algorithms.
This is by far the strongest contract we’ve ever achieved, but we know our work is not done. We will never stop fighting to put patients over profits at UPMC Altoona.
If you have any questions, reach out to Kim Heverly at sweetierae.kh@gmail.com or to Gillian Kratzer at gillian.kratzer@seiuhcpa.org.
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