GENEVA, Ohio — A union of nurses says its members were the ones on the pandemic's front lines at University Hospitals Geneva Medical Center, but now they're being left out of COVID appreciation bonuses paid by UH.
As nurses in UH Geneva's emergency room and ICU, Katie Lewis, Heather Abate, and Jen Hughes worked with the pandemic's sickest patients.
"Families weren't allowed in these rooms, so we became the family, we became their support system," Abate, an RN who also serves as vice president for the Ohio Nurses Association Geneva chapter, said.
When University Hospitals announced in December it would pay out a $1,250 COVID appreciation bonus to 2021 workers still employed this month, nurses felt rewarded. But in early April, about three dozen union nurses at the Geneva campus found out they're being left out.
"On April 5 of this year, we received a new email that now stated unionized employees were not eligible for this bonus," chapter President Katie Lewis told us. "We just feel that we are entitled to it, not only pursuant to the emails that they sent that didn't exclude us solely until that email was sent on April 5 where unionized employees were added, but because of what we went through as front-line workers."
When 3News went to UH, they offered this statement:
"University Hospitals appreciates all of our caregivers who have served the health care needs of our patients and our Northeast Ohio communities throughout the tragic and demanding two-years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Late last year, UH announced 2021 appreciation bonuses in the amount of $1,250 for eligible employees who were in regular-status roles as of Dec. 31, 2021 and remain employed through the date of the bonus payment later in April. The bonuses are a well-deserved recognition of above and beyond service during this extraordinary period of time.
"Managers and above, union employees, and those who are non-compliant with the CMS COVID-19 vaccination mandate are not eligible for the bonuses.
"Compensation for nurses at UH Geneva Medical Center, who are the only unionized nurses in our health system, is dictated by the collective bargaining agreement.
"The appreciation bonuses and the continuity of care for all of our patients’ needs throughout the pandemic would not have been possible without the support that health systems received through the CARES Act."
The Ohio Nurses Association says the aforementioned collective bargaining agreement allows members to receive bonuses at UH discretion, and that often its members have been included for past monetary bonuses as well as current bonus perks programs outlined in the same December email. When the union met with hospital management, Lewis claims officials said it was "their conscious decision" to leave the Geneva nurses out of the COVID bonuses.
"We do this because we love what we do," Hughes, who works in the operating room and was called to the emergency floor during the height of the pandemic, stated, "and at the end of the day, we really just want to be rewarded like everybody else."
ONA escalated its grievance on Monday, and if they don't reach an agreement with UH within five days, they plan to take the matter to arbitration.