L+M Hospital caregivers approve new contracts

NEW LONDON, CT – June 20, 2018 – Members of the three AFT-Connecticut affiliated unions who represent nearly 1,700 employees at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital overwhelmingly ratified new three-year contracts yesterday.

Hospital and AFT leadership reached a tentative agreement last week before Tuesday’s ratification vote. Specifics of the deal, which run through June 30, 2022, were not announced.

The existing contracts weren’t set to expire until June 30, 2019.

“We have a truly outstanding workforce that, every day, provides our patients with compassionate, safe, quality care,” said Patrick L. Green, hospital president and chief executive officer. “At a time when there is so much uncertainty and upheaval affecting health care, these new agreements provide a measure of stability so that we can advance our mission for this great community. I’m very proud of our partnership with AFT-Connecticut and the teamwork and effort that went into reaching these agreements.”

“These contracts are the product of a collaborative, patient-centered relationship with hospital leadership,” said Lisa D’Abrosca, RN, president of L+M Registered Professional Nurses, AFT Local 5049. “They demonstrate what labor and management can accomplish by working together.”

“Our working conditions are our patients’ healing conditions,” said Stephanie Lancaster Johnson, RPSGT, president of L+M Federation of Technologists, AFT Local 5051. “Collective bargaining to make improvements doesn’t just benefit our members; it benefits our community, too.”

Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, a member of Yale New Haven Health, is a non-profit, 308-bed general and acute care hospital providing patient care to medical, surgical, pediatric, psychiatric and obstetrical patients in southeastern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island since 1912. Lawrence + Memorial offers cardiac acute, step-down and rehabilitation programs and is the only eastern Connecticut hospital that performs emergency and elective angioplasty. www.lmhospital.org