Fred Vocino, MNA
517/896-3314 or 517/349-5640 x24

OR

Carol Feuss, MNA
517/349-5640, ext. 21 or (cell) 517/230-4086

December 5, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Visiting Nurse Association of Southeast Michigan has new three-year contract

Detroit, MI – Registered nurses at Visiting Nurse Association of Southeast Michigan, represented by the Michigan Nurses Association, recently ratified a new three-year contract.

The RNs will see a base wage increase of 10% over the term of the contract: 3.5 % in 2006; 3% 2007, 3.5% 2007. The wage increase will be retroactive to the beginning of 2006.

Significant contract changes include updating how the MNA-represented home care RNs are compensated and scheduled. A salary-plus-bonus pay system was developed which reduces reporting and scheduling responsibilities and improves pay for increased productivity and efficiency.

“The redesigned system will streamline a process which had been frustrating, to both nurses and administration,” said Fred Vocino, MNA Labor Representative.

The contract also clarifies the ways nurses are assigned patients, emphasizing minimal travel assuring clinical competency. Nurses’ abilities to take on additional patients, as well as their right to decline additional patient assignments beyond base daily and weekly levels, were further defined.

The nurses retained their current health care benefits, with reductions in employee premium co-pays and increases in the prescriptions co-pays.

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