HHS Human Resources Committee deals with Union Issues and Diversity Report

On May 1 at 7:30am the Human Resources Committee of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System Board met at Stroger Hospital.

Emily Young, a representative from the Stroger Hospital Doctors' Council, gave a presentation requesting that the doctors at Stroger Hospital be allowed to unionize, since the doctors at the other hospitals in the system already have. She stated that a petition requesting this has been signed by a majority of the doctors at Stroger. She provided the following reasons for unionization:

1. A majority of the physicians want a voice in what they do for the county. While they acknowlege the voice of the Executive Council they feel their collective voice in a union would be more beneficial.
2. The fact that doctors at some of the hospitals in the system are unionized while at Stroger they are not creates a dysfunctional system and lowers morale among the Stroger physician staff.
3. The doctors at Stroger were a strong voice in helping to create a separate HHS Board and they want to be a partner with the board and have a voice in what happens within the system.

Ms. Young further stated that the doctors were upset when their petition to unionize was rejected by the HHS Board and they felt betrayed that the HHS Board had "sided with the County". She further stated that the doctors have tried for 20 years to unionize and the County has gone to court over the issue claiming that the doctors are supervisors and therefore cannot unionize. She was appealing to the Board again to honor their petition. 2 more doctors spoke in support of the petition, one stating that doctors have a role as teachers not as supervisors since they have no role in the hiring or firing of personnel.

During the public comment time an RN from Cermak Hospital expressed the concern of her union that the negotiations for their contract were taking so long. Negotiations began in October of 2008.

Dr. Martinez gave a presentation on the Diversity Council for the HHS.

• Written information was provided to board members on health disparities.
• He stated that on-line Cultural Competency Training is done yearly.
• Attempts are being made to collect data on race/ethnicity of staff and patients throughout the system. He stated that system wide about half of patients are African-American, and a quarter are Hispanic. The large number of those in the "other" category indicates a probable data collection issue and training of data entry personnel will be done.
• Among the leadership at the hospital about 50% are white, 30% African American, and 7% Hispanic.
• Employee data is now in the system but so far no reports have been generated. Information on employees should be available soon.
• The Council is writing their Mission Statement which they will run by the State's Attorney before presenting to the Board
• They will meet with the new CEO when he arrives to see how they should move forward

Board Chairman Batts asked Dr. Martinez if progress was being made. Dr. Martinez says that the committee focus has mostly been on getting minority representation on the medical staff and while progress has been made, it is slow. Also with the latest budget cuts, some of the doctors who were cut were minority physicians since they tend to be younger and have less seniority.

The process for revision of Personnel Policies was outlined. Efforts are being made to combine 2 existing policies into one and update all policies. It was recommended that to expedite the process the staff would present the revised policies to an appointed Working Group from the board. This Working Group would work with staff to review and revise the policies before presenting them first to this committee and then to the full board for approval. The recommendation was accepted and Chairman Batts appointed directors Zopp and Ramirez and himself to be the Working Group.

The meeting went into closed session at 8:20am to consider stipends, personnel matters, and an update on labor negotiations.

Cynthia Schilsky, LWVCC Observer