ORLANDO, Fla. — WFTV spoke with one of the nurse behind a push to form a union at one of Orlando's largest employers.
A group of Orlando Health employees plan to present a petition to the hospital's CEO Tuesday, asking to stop changes to shift-differential pay.
Orlando Health released a statement Monday.
"Orlando Health has made great strides in quality and patient outcomes and achieved national recognition through our Leapfrog quality scores and Magnet status for nursing care at Arnold Palmer Medical Center. This achievement comes from excellent teamwork among our medical staff, nursing teams and leadership. We do not believe we need a union to achieve this continued success. Unions do not offer value to our goal of achieving optimum patient care, which is a responsibility and passion shared by everyone at Orlando Health," a spokesperson said in an email. "Orlando Health leaders welcome and encourage input and ideas from employees. We responded promptly when a group of employees supporting the union asked for a meeting late last week, meeting with them this morning and accepting the online petition asking for us to reconsider the changes to our shift differential pay. Orlando Health, like many healthcare organizations, has to make some hard decisions to address our financial challenges. One of those is the decision to reduce some special premium pay rates that are now among the highest in the region. This move, along with several other initiatives underway to improve our operations, is critical to our overall financial health, to preserve jobs and to meet our commitments to the communities we serve. Our hospitals, employees and patient care benefit from a close, respectful and direct relationship between our leaders and caregivers. We do not believe unionization promotes that relationship or supports our efforts to provide quality, affordable care to our patients."