Union officials say MU Health Care did not properly inform them of proposed staff and benefit cuts before they were discussed at a University of Missouri Curators meeting earlier this month.
LiUNA Local 955 spokesman Andrew Hutchinson said MU Health broke its contract, and the union is preparing a public response.
“We didn’t receive any official notice about any of these proposed cuts, so that's already the first step that they’ve gone against our agreement,” Hutchinson said. “They’re supposed to provide us with notice so that we can bargain over the proposed changes before they’ve implemented and we have to grieve it.”
The contract between the University and LiUNA requires 30 days’ notice before implementing most modifications.
Hutchinson said that while the contract leaves some space for interpretation, the University has been more communicative in the past than with the recent changes.
“Generally what has happened is that they give us notice before it goes public, but what they have done essentially now is that they have proposed all of these, told people when it’s coming and now we’re having to go back and assert that we have the right to bargain,” he said.
MU Health has laid off 74 employees as well as getting rid of another 75 positions and cutting pay, time off and contributions to retirement accounts – though Hutchinson said none of the fired employees were union employees.
MU Health officials declined a recorded interview, but a written statement from spokesman Eric Maze called the proposed reductions in retirement contributions “meaningful retirement support for employees who may not have previously been able to maximize employer contributions.”
The statement said the changes are just proposals which must still be approved at a special meeting of the University’s Board of Curators in July.
