We encourage all of you to stay informed and involved. We are stronger together. If you have any questions, please call telephone number 212-532-7690.

 NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE BARGAINING SURVEY

Please find a copy of our Bargaining Survey.  The purpose of the Bargaining Survey is to find out what each of you would like to see addressed in the upcoming negotiations.  The results of the Survey will be used by our Bargaining Committee to help draft our bargaining proposals and to prioritize our issues.  Our contract with New York Medical College expires on June 30, 2008, and we are looking to begin bargaining sometime in mid-to-late April.

Our bargaining is open to all our members, but we need a core Bargaining Committee representative of each department or specialty to commit to coming to sessions and being involved for us to be successful in achieving our next contract.  To be clear, we will need members from every department to be involved, as each round of bargaining it is becoming harder to achieve a good contract. 

We have enjoyed success in our contracts here, and to continue that we need each of you to be involved and stay involved through bargaining, especially by attending negotiations when you can and taking part in activities we may do to help win a new contract.  That is the purpose of the last page of the Bargaining Survey- everyone doing their part to help protect the well earned contract we have and advocating to achieve a new contract.

We want all our members to complete and return the Bargaining Survey.  PLEASE RETURN THE BARGAINING SURVEY BY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2008.  You may return this Bargaining Survey by any of the following methods:

1) mail it back to our Doctors Council office
2) fax it back to Doctors Council at fax # 212-481-4137
3) download the Survey and return it by any of these method or by e-mailing it back to
    info@doctorscouncil.com
4) give the survey to one of your Delegates (Dr. Baumstein, Dr.Broumas, Dr. Meletiche
    or Dr. Williams)

We will be having a General Membership Meeting on Friday, March 7, 2008, at 12:00 p.m. noon, in Room # 1B35 on the First Floor of Metropolitan Hospital, and will review the returned Bargaining Surveys and our bargaining proposals to be presented to New York Medical College.
 
We encourage all of you to stay informed and involved.  We are stronger together.  If you have any questions, please call telephone number 212-532-7690. 

We are about to embark on an exciting process at Doctors Council, looking to build upon the success of our last City contract .  We have greatly expanded our Bargaining Committee for our members employed by the New York City HHC or Mayoral Agencies.  Our goal is to have increased participation by our members, as well as more overall representation.  To continue to build upon our successes, we need more informed and involved members.

Our Bargaining Committee is a mixture of long-time members, Delegates, Representatives 
and newly involved members.  The Committee went through training August and helped craft the Bargaining Survey.  The Survey's goal is to elicit from our members what you want to see addressed in bargaining, and what your priorities are.

Members of the Doctors Council NYC-HHC & Mayoral Bargaining Committee at training 

Further, we are creating a CONTRACT ACTION TEAM (CAT).  The CAT is for members who want to be informed and involved in bargaining.  It is not enough to simply state what we want to achieve in bargaining; we have to stand together as one and fight for our goals.  It cannot just be the Bargaining Committee that does all the work; the CAT will assist the Bargaining Committee in communicating with our members and with any actions that may be necessary to achieve a successful contract.  If you want to be involved, we encourage you to become part of the Contract Action Team (CAT).  The first step is completing and returning the Survey, especially the last page, and checking off what you are willing to do.

The outreach to our members now being undertaken is something we can be proud of and we want to hear from you.  We want all our members to complete and return the Bargaining Survey.  Please return the Survey by Friday, September 30, 2005.  You may return this Bargaining Survey by any of the following methods:

1) mail it back to our Doctors Council office
2) fax it back to Doctors Council at fax # 212-481-4137
3) bring it to your worksite membership/CAT Team meeting in September
    (see Events Calendar)
4) bring it to the CAT Team meeting at Doctors Council on Thursday, September 22nd
     at 6:00 PM
5) give the survey to your Delegate or a Bargaining Committee member

There will be worksite membership meetings in September for where you work (see Events Calendar). In the event you cannot make your facility meetings, you can drop off your survey and participate in our union-wide CAT team/membership meeting for all doctors on Thursday, September 22, from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at our Doctors Council office at which time you can return the Survey and we will discuss the issues.

If you have any questions, please call your Contract Administrator at 212-532-7690.  You should also regularly attend the membership meetings at your worksites.

* Note:
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open and read these documents. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can access this free software by clicking on the graphic. You will only have to complete this process once.

If you work at Elmhurst Hospital and are employed by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, please complete our "BUMP UP" SURVEY**.  Under our contract, if the Employer employs a new hire at a salary rate higher than any incumbent who has similar or superior experience and qualifications, the Employer will notify the Union.  In the event the Employer does not provide an increase to the salary rate of any such incumbents so as to equal or exceed the salary rate of the new hire, the Union may contest the Employer's failure to do so by submitting a grievance.  If you believe you qualify under this contract provision or if you are not sure, please complete and return the Survey to Doctors Council.

 If you work for Columbia University, as part of our most recent contract, a new Article was agreed to, entitled "Patient Care Committee."   This Committee will meet to address patient care issues.  We are entitled to Representatives from each department.  The Committee will discuss with administration patient care issues, such as staffing, case/work load, ancillary support, equipment and planning decisions and ensuring quality and safe patient care. 

 If you have patient care concerns, please complete and return the Patient Care Survey.
 
You may also use the Assignment Despite Objection (A.D.O.) Notification Form.  We ask that you only use this form internally at this point and not give this to anyone but Doctors Council.  You may copy the ADO form and use it to track concrete examples of patient care issues over an extended period of time, such as a week or a month.  Concrete data is more useful than anecdotal representations.  Please keep a copy of any completed ADO Form for yourself and send one copy to Doctors Council and do not give to anyone else.

WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR DOCTORS TO BE ON THE PATIENT CARE COMMITTEE TO REPRESENT YOUR DEPARTMENTS.  IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE STATE SO IN THE SURVEY AND CALL US AT 212-532-7690 TO DISCUSS.

If you would like to become part of the solution to make Doctors Council a stronger voice for doctors by becoming a Representative, please complete and return the * REPRESENTATIVE RECRUITMENT FORM**.  If you work for Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS) , please complete and return your BARGAINING SURVEY** and CONTRACT ACTION TEAM (CAT) SURVEY**.  If you work for Rockland County, please complete and return your BARGAINING SURVEY.  If you work for the Woodhull Medical Group (WMG) at Woodhull Hospital or the Cumberland Diagnostic and Treatment Center, please complete and return your * BARGAINING SURVEY.** If you work for the New York City Health and Hospital's Corporation (HHC) or the Mayoral Agencies, please complete and return your * BARGAINING SURVEY.** If you work for Columbia University at Harlem Hospital or the Renaissance Health Care Network, please   complete and return your * BARGAINING SURVEY.**  If you work for the Downtown Bronx Medical Associates (DBMA) at Lincoln Hospital, please complete and return your * BARGAINING SURVEY.**   If you work for New York Medical College at Metropolitan Hospital, please complete and return your * BARGAINING SURVEY.** * *Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open and read these documents. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can access this free software by clicking on the graphic. You will only have to complete this process once.