Jackson Health System Board Hires Tough Labor Negotiators
MIAMI (CBS4)- Jackson Health System's new governing board signaled in its first meeting that it plans tough talks with its unions by hiring negotiators that a labor leader called "union busters."
Chief Executive Carlos Migoya recommended on Monday that the board spend up to $275,000 in a no-bid contract for Allen, Norton & Blue, a Coral Gables law firm that Migoya wants to lead the negotiations with Jackson's four labor unions, whose contracts expire Sept. 30. The board unanimously approved the request, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
Migoya said the firm did a great job for him last year when he was Miami city manager. With the city facing a $105 million deficit, he used a little-known state law to reduce union pensions by about $80 million — a move the unions are still fighting in court.
Having a professional doing [the negotiations] keeps out the conflict of interest of having employees negotiate a contract that they could benefit from," Migoya told the new seven-member Financial Recovery Board. "Unions have very good legal talent. If we don't have similar professionals," Jackson executives would be at a disadvantage.
Migoya said he needed a no-bid deal because there was no time to lose in opening negotiations.
Jackson's union leaders said this was the first time the system had hired outside negotiators. "I've run into them before," Martha Baker, president of SEIU Local 1991, said about Allen, Norton.
They're union busters." Baker said she was "frustrated that they can find $275,000 for this but they can't afford $275,000 for lift equipment to save the backs of our nurses and caregivers."
Migoya said the stakes with labor are "as big as it gets," with hundreds of millions of dollars at the bargaining table.
Last year, a Miami-Dade grand jury and a group of 41 civic and business leaders urged Jackson take a hard look at labor costs.
The grand jury said successful hospitals' expenses for labor are about 40 percent of total operating costs. Jackson spends 55 percent on labor. Starting salaries for Jackson nurses are about the same as some other hospitals, but Jackson nurses tend to be veterans earning more per hour, and employees get pensions that workers at many other hospitals do not.
Stephen Dresnick, a physician-entrepreneur and hospital consultant, says, "Per capita labor costs are simply too high. Conservatively $150 million could be saved annually while still providing Jackson employees a pay premium over other South Florida hospitals."
Baker has said repeatedly that Jackson is riddled with inefficiencies and it's unfair to continue hammering labor, which last year agreed to the equivalent of a 5 percent pay cut. The system has lost $337 million in the past two years and is expected to lose $100 million this year, the Herald reported.
In other business, the new board selected Marcos Lapciuc as its chairman. Lapciuc was also chair of the former board, the Public Health Trust. Accountant Darryl Sharpton was named vice chair, retired businessmen Joe Arriola treasurer and retired firefighter Joaquin del Cueto secretary.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report)
