Most of last week’s bargaining time was spent with each team reviewing proposals and counterproposals submitted by the other team. On Monday, MNA/UMPNC submitted a proposal regarding the use of agency (or “traveling”) nurses at the organization. Michigan Medicine prefers that our care is provided by our nursing workforce, but will use agency staff, as needed, to assist with staffing needs.

Both teams have introduced proposals with a new salary structure that will move nurse practitioners into a step model, which provides a yearly increase for each year of experience, in addition to the general compensation increase. Converting into this new model from the process outlined in the current contract is a complicated process, requiring careful review of current NP salaries and other data. We will be reviewing both salary models and working with the HR Compensation team as we continue to negotiate over a new NP salary model.

Lastly, we would like to address the status of CSR in our current proposals. The first MNA/UMPNC contract was negotiated in the 1970s and since that time, many changes and additions have occurred. Each time a “new” contract is negotiated, we do not start from scratch. We negotiate changes to the existing agreement. Over the years, this leads to a lot of outdated information that may not fit with current practice, so we seek to make revisions so that our contract language reflects our practices. For this reason, we proposed removing some language as it relates to CSR and ACNRP float positions on units. This type of revision does not change the way CSR is currently utilized to support staffing on units. Michigan Medicine is not seeking to make any substantiative changes to CSR staffing.

Last week, the parties reached a tentative agreement on the following articles of the contract:  Article 18 – Call Back Pay; Article 31 – Employee Assistance; Article 41 – Emergency Closure and Emergency Operations Reduction; Article 42 – Tuition Support Program; Article 48 – Conferences; Article 50 – Release Time.  These articles are listed as tentatively agreed to because they will not become final agreements until a formal ratification vote takes place at the conclusion of negotiations.