Meharry, SEIU Employees Reach Agreement; Sign 5-Year Pact

18-Month Negotiation Ends with SEIU Members Ratifying Contract, the First Major Issue Resolved in New President’s Two-Week Tenure

Nashville, Tenn. – Ranking executives of Meharry Medical College andthe leadership ofLocal 205 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) signed a labor-management agreement today that was ratified last week by members of the College’s SEIU bargaining unit. The agreement is effective immediately and remains in force through 2011. Principal signatories were Wayne J. Riley, M.D., MBA president and chief executive of Meharry; Doug Collier, director of Tennessee operation for SEIU; and Gloria Jones, chief steward of Local 205’s Meharry chapter.

The breakthrough in what had been an 18-month struggle to renew a labor agreement covering campus service employees came less than nine days into the tenure of Dr. Riley, who reported for duty as Meharry’s 10^th president on January 1. Even before he assumed leadership of the College on a full-time basis, Dr. Riley, worked intensely behind the scenes to accelerate the negotiating process to arrive at a new contract.

“I am delighted that the resolution of issues that previously separated the bargaining agents and impeded ratification by the SEIU membership occurred on my watch,” Dr. Riley said. “Over the last two months, I was pleased to provide constructive involvement and to participate in the final stages of the College coming to terms with the SEIU and its members who serve the Meharry community. This new contract marks a significant new beginning for labor-management relationships at Meharry. Now a unified and energized campus can move forward together and focus its collective will, talent and energy on seizing opportunities that will grow Meharry’s as one of the nation’s most treasured independent academic health science centers with a reputation for excellence in teaching, research, clinical care focused on the needs of the nation’s underserved population.”

Doug Collier, SEIU Local 205’s Director, stated, “We are excited that after lengthy negotiations, we have been able to work with Meharry to come up with a new contract we could all agree with.” Collier added, “Thanks to the tireless efforts of the bargaining team, Meharry employees can rest assured that negotiations are finally over for now.” 

Under terms of the contract signed on January 16, SEIU-covered employees gain significant new benefits, such as: short term disability coverage; merit pay raises, in addition to so-called “step” increases already awarded; and an 80 percent/20 percent employer/employee split for health insurance payments.

On the administration side, the agreement removes what Meharry officials viewed in the old contract as impediments to efficient management, implementation of model business processes and more efficient workforce deployment.  For example, the new contract acknowledges the administration’s right to: stipulate categories of employees eligible for overtime pay; change insurance carriers without further bargaining; and offer employees the right to cross over to other jobs. And it also eliminates so-called employee “bumping” when workforce changes occur.  

The old agreement, superseded by this new contract, lapsed in May 2005. A series of training sessions to familiarize all Meharry supervisors and managers with the terms of the new contract are scheduled to occur the same week the new contract is signed and will be conducted ongoing thereafter.   

About Meharry

Meharry Medical College exists to improve the health and health care of minority and underserved communities by offering excellent education and training programs in the health sciences, placing special emphasis on providing opportunities to people of color and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, regardless of race or ethnicity; delivering high quality health services; and conducting research that fosters the elimination of health disparities.

About SEIU Local 205

SEIU Local 205 is Tennessee’s largest and fastest-growing public sector and healthcare workers union. It includes more than 4,000 private and public sector employees who work primarily as public employees; hospital and home care workers and laborers in the industrial trades. It accomplishes its goals through a strategic plan of organizing and political action. Local 205 is active in Nashville, Oak Ridge, Memphis and Chattanooga

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Meharry Medical College is the nation’s largest private, independent historically black institution dedicated solely to educating minority and other health professionals. The College is particularly well known for its uniquely nurturing, highly effective educational programs; emerging preeminence in health disparities research; culturally sensitive, evidence-based health services; and significant contribution to the diversity of the nation’s health professions workforce. Black Issues in Higher Education’s ranking of institutions annually lists Meharry as a leading national educator of African Americans with M.D. and D.D.S. degrees, and Ph.D. degrees in the biomedical sciences.