1,700 Westchester Medical OK 5 year union contract

[Omaha Steve]

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806050445

By Candice Ferrette
The Journal News • June 5, 2008

VALHALLA - Westchester Medical Center's board last night unanimously voted in favor of a new contract that will guarantee raises to all nurses and post-retirement benefits to some nurses.

The more than 1,700 members of the nurses union at the medical center have been working without a contract - and pay raises - for more than two years.

The nurses will get 9 percent raises immediately and 3 percent raises annually through 2010. The base salary for a nurse at the medical center is $55,000. When the contract expires, it will be about $64,000.

The five-year contract is retroactive, beginning on April 1, 2006.

The raises will cost the hospital an estimated $3 million each year.

For 2008, $110 million is budgeted for the nurses' salaries, said Michael Israel, the hospital's president and chief executive officer.

FULL story at link.