THE WORK WE DO

2. “When I first came to the hospital more than 20 years ago,” says LaTanya Denton, “I started out on the night shift. I think I have worked on every floor in the hospital by now. I started working as a PCT in the Emergency Room about ten years ago, and came onto the day shift.

“This contract is the first time we got dollar raises, instead of percentages. This always works out better for the lowest-paid members. We were also focused on rewarding the people who had been here the longest. We had way too many members who had been working here for more than 30 years and were not even making $20 per hour. We wanted to reward those who had been loyal to the place. New people didn’t want to come here because the pay was so low. It is the best contract we’ve negotiated in all the time I have been here, with bo - nuses coming in each of the three years.”

Denton and her colleagues were determined to get what they deserve.

“We work hard, and we were working short all through the pandemic,” she says. “[Just like in New York], the nurses had negotiated large raises. We were happy about that, but the nurses don’t run the hospital by themselves. Just like doctors can’t do their jobs without nurses, the nurses need PCTs and CNAs— and we all need EVS. We all work together. If one part is missing the whole machine stops working.

“We won because members got involved. As a Delegate, I would tell people, ‘I’m not going to get myself worked up, if you are not going to do your part, too.’ You can’t have somebody else fight your battles and then reap the rewards later.”

3. For Shania Oliver, it was important to be on the bargaining committee so she could represent patient care. As a PCT, she deals with the impact of short-staffing on a daily basis. Her job involves comforting families at the bedside, watching over suicidal patients, and protecting those who are at risk of falling out of bed.

“I love what I do,” she says. “But we surely deserve bonuses for what we went through during the Covid pandemic. We did not get enough appreciation from management.

“Short-staffing was getting worse because nobody was coming here because the pay was too low. The increases from our new contract just started coming through in mid-March. We are more than just numbers on their spreadsheets — and management needs to show us their appreciation.”

“But I was bored and wanted to try something different,” she says. “I started out in Food and Nutrition, was there for eight years, and then transport for six years. Then I was laid off. But because I had seniority in the union, I was able to get another job back in Food and Nutrition. If it weren’t for the Union, I would have been out of a job.”

McCrae says negotiating this last contract was tough.

“Whatever we asked for, they threw it back at us,” she says. “But as Union members, we know that nothing comes without a fight. In the end, we got the largest increases we’d had in a long time. Our raises were determined by our length of service. Because I have been here for 23 years, my wages went up by roughly 11 percent.

“We really needed it. People are struggling and having to work double shifts and seven-day weeks to make ends meet.”

The Maryland minimum wage was recently increased to $13.25, but Midtown members negotiated at least $15-an-hour for all Union members.

5. Sam Preston is a Unit Clerk on the Psychiatric Ward who has worked at the Midtown campus for more than 10 years—beginning when it was still a community hospital known as the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. These days, he says, “All workers have to struggle.”

“We did a walkout two days before settling the contract,” Preston continues. “We had to say enough is enough because what we were being paid was not enough to live on. You get $20/hr to deliver packages or serve meals in restaurants. But we are here helping to save lives and we were earning less than that!”

LaTanya