Latest contract talks 'didn't go well,' L+M union president says
Jan. 16—NEW LONDON — A negotiating session brokered by Mayor Michael Passero failed late last week to resolve the stalemate in contract talks between Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and the union representing some 900 of the hospital's health care workers.
"It didn't go well," Connie Fields, president of Local 5123 of AFT Connecticut, said Monday of the session, which took place via Zoom last Friday. The union made several concessions but "the hospital didn't move at all," she said.
As a result, union members are planning "informational" pickets from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at eight L+M locations, including outside the hospital's main entrance at 365 Montauk Ave., Fields said.
L+M management had announced Jan. 6 that it was taking what it called "the unprecedented step" of implementing the last offer it made during negotiations that stalled in December. The union had declared an impasse in the talks.
"They led me to believe they weren't happy leaving it with them unilaterally imposing their last best offer," Passero said of L+M management, including Patrick Green, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. "I talked to the union, and they were anxious to give it another try."
"I thought they were going to come to the table in good faith," Passero said of management. However, based on union officials' account of Friday's session, he questioned whether that was the case.
"I'm being told the hospital's attitude was, 'Why are we here? We're not changing our position,'" he said. "The sticking point for a lot of these workers ― and they're the lowest paid workers at the hospital ― is wages. We're finding out that the lowest-paid workers are working for poverty wages."
"It means L+M's leaving our social service agencies and state government to take care of their workers," Passero said. "No one's going to be able to live on $15.50 an hour."
L+M's spokeswoman, Fiona Phelan, issued a written statement Monday evening:
"After meeting with representatives of the health care workers union we firmly believe that our last best offer provides more benefit to our entry level employees than what we understand the union has proposed to its membership," Phelan wrote. "Our last best offer includes wage increases which for many union members equates to a 10% or more pay increase in the next six months. In addition, union members are eligible for participation in a Performance Incentive Plan (PIP) and a lower cost health plan option."
Health care worker job categories include food and nutrition, housekeeping, linen services, patient transport, stock clerk, drivers and messengers, groundskeeping and radiology tech aide.
Fields said union officials agreed during Friday's negotiating session to withdraw the union's opposition to biweekly payroll and to six-month holds on raises, a practice she said has been in place for several years.
The union also agreed to lower its demand for general wage increases from 2.75% a year over the life of the three-year contract being negotiated to 2.25% annually, according to Fields.
The union's last contract with the hospital expired June 30, 2022.
Fields said L+M was represented at the negotiating session by attorney Gabriel Jiran of Shipman & Goodwin, of Hartford, and Donna Epps, the hospital's vice president of human resources, while the union was represented by its seven-member negotiating committee and attorney James Demetriades of Ferguson, Doyle & Chester, a Rocky Hill firm.
