By Natalie Robbins
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nurses and other staff at the University of New Mexico Hospital rallied for wage increases Thursday, alleging the hospital denied them an annual raise despite increasing workloads and rapidly growing patient volume.
Union representatives say the hospital employees — including nurses, clerks, techs, nursing assistants, medical assistants, radiologists and facilities, pharmacy and environmental services workers — are not paid market-competitive wages, a contributing factor to UNMH’s issues with recruitment and retention.
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Yolanda Avila Ulmer , president of District 1199NM, the hospital workers’ union representing the UNMH employees, said union officials were told during negotiations that the hospital didn’t have money in the budget for staff raises, though its CEO Kate Becker was to receive a pay increase.
“They don’t budget for any of the people who are the foundation of this hospital, and that’s a big problem,” Avila Ulmer said.
On Thursday morning, around a dozen health care workers picketed outside the hospital in shifts. Nurses told the Journal they were living paycheck to paycheck amid rising expenses.
Since UNMH is a publicly operated hospital, the staff can’t go on strike, Avila Ulmer said, though the union won’t relent until its demands are met.
“We’re not going to stand down,” she said.
UNM Health Sciences spokesperson Chris Ramirez said in a statement that the hospital had taken “several financial hits” this year due to federal funding issues, rising costs of supplies and a growing patient population.
” UNM Hospital values its workforce and is deeply committed to providing competitive wages and creating an environment for our care teams to thrive, while providing high-level quality care to patients,” Ramirez said.
In the past five years, UNMH implemented five wage increases for all employees, along with equity adjustments for workers with more than six years of service, Ramirez said. Becker is the only one at UNMH receiving an annual raise because yearly pay increases are included in her multiyear contract, he said.
UNMH is New Mexico’s only Level 1 trauma center, equipped to provide 24-hour care for patients with the most serious injuries, so the hospital constantly receives patients from other parts of the state via helicopter, plane or ambulance.
This also means the hospital is often overcrowded. UNMH consistently operates at anywhere from 105% to 120% capacity, UNM Health Sciences spokesperson Brianna Mortensen told the Journal in August.
Overcrowding issues at UNMH compounded by a statewide provider deficit — New Mexico is short 30% for nurses, according to nonprofit Think New Mexico — means staff is overworked and patients suffer, Avila Ulmer said.
“The hospital is short-staffed. Nurses are working tired, overworked, lots of hours, four days, five days, 12-hour shifts,” she said. “Mistakes can happen. Patients aren’t getting their medications on time. It’s awful for this trauma hospital to be like this.”
Earlier this month, UNMH opened its critical care tower, designed to increase patient capacity. At $842 million, the nine-story tower is the largest and most expensive public non-road construction project in New Mexico’s history.
The tower’s opening was delayed by a year, in part by staffing challenges. At a ribbon cutting ceremony in September, UNM Health System CEO Dr. Mike Richards told the Journal the tower is still not fully staffed, though the hospital hired more than 1,000 new employees to work in it.
Margarita Ortega y Gomez , an occupational therapist at UNMH and District 1199NM chapter president, said the whole hospital, including the new tower, feels the strain of being understaffed, which means patients and student trainees don’t get the attention they deserve.
“Even in this new tower, they’re short-staffed with very unsafe conditions at this point,” she said. “That affects directly the people who need it the most.”
A wage increase will attract more staff to UNMH, Ortega y Gomez said, which will mean the hospital won’t have to pay travel nurses, who are more expensive.
“We want to recruit health care professionals. In order to do that, we’ve got to be able to pay fair and living wages. They have to be able to expect annual raises. They have to be able to expect good working conditions,” said state Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D- Albuquerque, who joined the picketers Thursday morning. “Why are we subcontracting out all over the nation for nurses when we have health care professionals that we can retain here?”
The union will return to negotiations with UNMH on Nov. 18, Avila Ulmer said.
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