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UNMH nurse Lorie MacIver said she makes a mere $3 more per hour than new nurses do at the hospital, even though she has worked there for seven years.
UNMH employees rallied to protest cuts on employees’ health benefits and push for higher wages along Lomas Boulevard in front of the hospital Thursday morning.
MacIver said that because the hospital has a per-hour rate of $25 for new nurses after they finish their 12-week orientation, experienced nurses are not paid what they deserve. She said she knows fellow nurses who resigned and now earn higher per-hour rate in other hospitals.
“One nurse left here and got $9.64 more an hour, and another nurse left and got $6 more, right off the bat, so UNMH is currently not even paying nurses market value for what we do,” she said.
“They’re hiring in at a good rate, but once nurses got in, what they don’t understand is (other nurses) will never get a raise exactly. And senior nurses that have been here many years are making less than grads that just came in.”
William Browne, administrative director of District 1199 New Mexico, the group that organized the rally, said UNMH expects to hire 4,000 more recent graduates than other hospitals in Albuquerque in the next year, and that these graduates will earn $25 per hour. He said 12 percent of UNMH employees have already taken jobs at different hospitals and that the number is expected to increase to 16 percent by the end of this year.
Browne said UNMH employees are relatively underpaid. As a result, he said his group and hospital employees want to see a 2.7 percent increase in wages this year and for the next two years. He said his group started negotiations with the University in May, but the University would not recognize the group’s request.
Browne said the administration could fulfill the request because UNM had $190 million for a new hospital building.
“They never said they don’t have the money,” he said. “They just choose not to give it to the employees. That’s a smack in the face for employees.”
Browne said the group is also protesting cuts in employees’ health care. He said UNMH proposed that instead of paying 100 percent of health care premiums, it will only pay 80 percent of full-time employees’ premiums and 60 percent of part-time employees’ premiums.
Browne said they oppose UNMH decreasing the amount the hospital pays for premiums because it will be a huge burden for employees to pay the remaining health care expenses. He said that because other hospitals in the city pay employees a lot more than UNMH, keeping employees underpaid will hurt the quality of the hospital.
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“Somebody who has been here for eight years gets paid less money than somebody who has eight years of experience anywhere else,” he said. “Those experienced nurses are leaving to get jobs somewhere else so that they can get that increase in pay that they deserve, and (that) is leaving less experienced nurses here to give the care.”
Browne said employees in management positions in the hospital are paid more than other employees, and that this income disparity in the hospital is unfair.
“When we say ‘You’re paying too much money for management positions and CEOs,’ they say, ‘This is the right amount of money to be able to keep qualified people,’” he said. “But the University does not have the same philosophy for those giving the care.”
Browne said that because stagnant wages will drive away experienced nurses from UNMH, the hospital administration should seek to compromise with his group.
“It costs more money to educate and teach a nurse than it does to keep one,” he said. It’s going to be a significant loss to the University.”
UNMH communications director Billy Sparks said that because the University recognizes the importance of employees, the Board of Regents is currently discussing the possibility of a wage increase.
“We are currently in negotiations,” he said. “We are hopeful that an agreement can be reached that is helpful for both parties. We value the contributions of our employees.”
Sparks declined to comment further on the topic.
