Our third day of bargaining with Avamere was really successful. We reached agreement on two important articles.

Here’s a breakdown of what we won and what we discussed:

Seniority will move with you if you go from one Avamere facility to another for the purpose of determining wages including longevity bonuses, and PTO accruals.
Layoffs will no longer be defined as 33% of a facility being laid off. We will now be able to protect workers’ rights if they are laid off by classification.
We had a very good discussion with Avamere around hours cuts. Avamere understood our concerns around hours cuts and how they affect us and our families – and they’ve committed to continue discussing ways to make sure that we pick up hours any way we can. We ended up agreeing to language that says that if we lose 2 shifts or 15 hours in a month, that Avamere will meet with us to figure out the impact of continuing hours cuts and addressing concerns around that.

We also had a good discussion with Avamere about our facilities struggling with staffing. Float pool (temporary) workers will be used to help address staffing needs, but any temporary worker will not replace a bargaining unit member. Additionally, if a temporary worker works for at least 4 months in one facility, they’ll become permanent and a part of our bargaining unit.

Our next session is on September 7th. Future bargaining dates are: September 12, and September 28.
“We moved forward and got a lot done today! We will be starting to discuss economics in our next few sessions.”
– Alessa Smith, CNA Avamere South Salem