Kapiolani Medical Center puts up final contract offer in ongoing negotiations
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - A new offer from Kapiolani Medical Center is the latest development in negotiations between nurses and the hospital.
Kapiolani says the offer is their best and final contract offering to the Hawaii Nurses Association.
The three-year deal would apply to 725 nurses. It includes an overall 5% pay raise, and $500 performance incentive payments.
The president of the nurses union says the offer fails to address their concerns about workplace safety.
“The nurses are losing their patience with the management of Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. Their last, best and final offer failed to address our concerns about patient safety. They attempt to appease us by proposing to reduce the number of times an N95 mask is reused from six uses to three, but N95 masks are designed to be used only once,” Daniel Ross, President of the Hawaii Nurses’ Association said in a statement.
“To our knowledge, Hawaii Pacific Health is the only healthcare organization that reuses N95 masks. They also never addressed our concern that they assign the same nurse to care for COVID and non-COVID patients at the same time. This is unacceptable for patients.”
The process so far has already included 15 negotiation sessions. The nurses plan to picket again Wednesday.
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