Union workers at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos on Tuesday narrowly approved a new one-year contract that calls for a 4 percent raise for all eligible employees, random drug testing and a streamlined grievance system, The Taos News reported.

The 57-41 vote came after negotiators reached an agreement over a system of arbitration of employee complaints, which hospital management had wanted to do away with, including the case of a longstanding grievance brought by former nurse Mary Ann Wisnewski, who was fired in 2006, the News reported.

Both sides agreed to have a federal mediator at the bargaining table to push them toward compromise and resolution, the paper said.

"We're glad to get it over with," hospital CEO Ken Spellman told The Taos News. "The big thing was the union agreed to a mediation approach that is much less costly than arbitration."

Nurses' union president Maryam Chudnoff told the paper that the close vote -- in which 98 of 306 eligible employees cast ballots -- shows there are still issues for the union and management to work out.

"We have a lot of work to do to restore the relationship with management," Chudnoff said. "However, it is a relief to have the contract."

The contract was reduced from two years to one year in last-minute negotiations, the News reported.

Pay raises were not an issue an an earlier vote on July 2, in which union members voted 95-6 to reject the contract, largely in a dispute over how to deal with the Wisnewski issue, the paper said.

In a separate action, hospital management gave 14 percent raises to nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists and "scrub techs" in an effort to reduce chronic shortages in those areas, the News reported.

6:25am 7/1/08 -- Taos Hospital Union Overwhelmingly Rejects Contract: Unresolved arbitration over firing of nurse 2 years ago said to be sole point of contention.

Union workers at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos last week overwhelmingly rejected the hospital's latest contract offer, with both sides acknowledging that unresolved arbitration over the firing of former nurse Mary Anne Wisnewski was the sole sticking point in negotiations, The Taos News reported.

The 95-6 vote rejecting the contract came last Wednesday, the News reported.

The National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees District 1199 plans a candlelight walk and vigil next Monday in support of the hospital workers' position, according to the paper.

The previous contract will remain in force until the negotiations are resolved, the News reported.

An alternative online publication called the Taos Daily Horse Fly reported in October 2006 that Wisnewski, a medical-surgical nurse who had come to Taos with her husband Rob about five years earlier, was suspended in June 2006, then fired in August of that year after complaining about short-staffing and unsafe working conditions.

Her case has been in arbitration for two years, the Taos News reported.

Holy Cross Hospital acknowledged on its Web site that grivance arbitration over Wisnewski's case was the "only remaining sticking point," saying the union negotiators would not agree to the hospital's proposal "to resolve all outstanding grievances upon execution of this Agreement."

Hospital negotiators said the union wanted to reserve its right to arbitrate the termination of "an employee that occurred over TWO years ago," which it claimed would be unfair to management and very expensive, the Web site said.

"Further, the former employee has moved to Albuquerque and found employment there," the hospital Web site said. "Since it is unlikely the employee will ever return to work at Holy Cross, what possible value could there be arbitrating this stale grievance?"

The entire contract is posted on the hospital's Web site. 

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