SECAUCUS – A tentative collective bargaining agreement has been reached between the expected buyer of Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center and a hospital workers’ union that represents more than 400 employees.
Details of the agreement were not released Tuesday afternoon.
But in a release today from the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), the union stated that HPAE Local 5147 members would vote on the agreement on Wed., Sept. 22. Details of the agreement are being withheld until the ratification vote.
LibertyHealth System, which currently owns Meadowlands Hospital, announced earlier this year that it had agreed to sell the facility to MHA, LLC. The deal has been somewhat controversial, and has received additional scrutiny from state agencies because, if approved, the hospital would shift from the nonprofit LibertyHealth to the for-profit MHA.
Since February, HPAE has been pushing for negotiations as part of the conditions of the sale.
The hospital sale is currently under review by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and the Office of the Attorney General.
“Our primary goal has always been to protect our hospital, our patients and the caregivers,” said Secaucus resident JoAnne Dudsak, a registered nurse and president of Local 5147 at Meadowlands. “We wanted to make sure that when the ownership changed, the same dedicated staff would be by our patients’ bedsides. This agreement does that.”
Workers at the hospital are expected to receive a “WARN’ notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) today, a legally required communication that their employment with LibertyHealth Systems will expire in no less than 60 days. The tentative agreement will assure that their jobs will be transitioned under the new ownership. – E. Assata Wright
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