Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Supporting Bargaining Between SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin Meriter Registered Nurses and Meriter Hospital for the Good of the City.
Body
WHEREAS, Meriter Hospital has served the healthcare interests of Madison citizens since it was founded as Madison General Hospital in 1902; and,
WHEREAS, Meriter has approximately 3000 employees, among them more than 750 registered nurses; and,
WHEREAS, contracts agreed to through collective bargaining have ensured that employees are free to report problems, raise concerns, and question potentially unsafe decisions without risking their jobs, that nurses are not assigned to consecutive shifts with no rest, and that workers have been able to place prudent limits on the number of patients a healthcare worker has to care for; and,
WHEREAS, decisions affecting the health and well-being of the residents of Madison are of great consequence to the City of Madison; and,
WHEREAS, maintaining good-paying jobs and stable employment are indisputably in the interests of the City of Madison; and,
WHEREAS, the SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin Meriter Registered Nurses have engaged with Meriter Hospital in good faith bargaining since January 2013, and have been operating without a contract since April 19, 2013,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that to ensure the ongoing health and safety of the residents of the City of Madison and to maintain the economic benefits of the stable employment base of Meriter Hospital, the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Madison call on Meriter Hospital to remain a responsible employer and continue to bargain in good faith with its union and to reach an amicable collective bargaining agreement with its registered nurses, one that honors the successful tradition of working with its union that Meriter has enjoyed so far.