Employees at Maui Memorial Medical Center (pictured) are currently working under an expired collective bargaining agreement that expired at 12:00 a.m. Monday morning. Ryan Mitchel Collins/ The Maui News photo

WAILUKU – Employees at Maui Memorial Medical Center (MMMC) are currently working under an expired collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that expired at 12:00 a.m. Monday morning, according to union members and the hospital.

The expiration of the CBA, and a vote to action by the 900 United Nurses Associations of California (UNAC) union members has paved the way for a possible strike. Both sides have been negotiating a new contract since July 22.

According to the United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii Chair (UNHCEH), Mat Pelc, the union took a call to action vote in September that enables members to perform an action necessary in negotiations, including going on strike, until the union demands for their workers are met. Pelc has been employed with MMMC for five years as a CAT scan technologist, in addition to serving as the chair of the union.

Pelc says the employees are simply asking for two conditions. The first being living wages for all staff, including ancillary employees who are making $21 an hour. Pelc also stated the employees are asking for a safe patient to nurse ratio in line with Kaiser’s own California contracts, which he claims is not being followed on Maui.

“Originally we had tried to start negotiating back in March,” Pelc said of the expired CBA. “Maui Health Management was open to the idea at first. They said they were interested in getting a head start and getting ahead of it. Then when March rolled around they decided they didn’t want to do it.”

Pelc said that a few dates after March were put forth as possible negotiation dates by Kaiser management such as May, but when the time came negotiations were again delayed until they started at the mandated contractual negotiation date of July 22. After two months of unsuccessful negotiations, both sides of the delegation are without a current CBA.

“When May rolled around, they said, ‘we’re not going to start bargaining until the date mandated in the contract,'” Pelc said of the negotiation process before the mandated date.

Mellissa Robinson is a Registered Nurse with MMMC and serves as the co-chair of the union. Robinson spoke with The Maui News on Tuesday about the expired CBA.

“Basically right now we are currently without a contract,” Robinson said. “We’ve been bargaining with Maui Health since July 22. We did try to start negotiations sooner back in March, but the hospital refused to give us any dates before July 22.”

Both Robinson and Pelc said they feel that negotiations were not taken seriously by management, which they feel has helped contribute to the current CBA expiring without a new deal in place.

What happens now?

Without a current CBA and the call to action vote by union members that received a 98% yes vote to go on strike if necessary, the possibility of a strike is becoming more probable by the day. The current contract will stay in place. Until a new contract is reached, wages will stay the same, but the no strike clause has been waived. Six more negotiation meetings will be held between the two parties.

“The call to action is if the union wants to make a recommendation for members for something like sign waving for example, we have to get approval from the members,” ICU Nurse Josh Masslon said of the vote to action by the union. “So this call to action vote was a vote from the members to give us the authority to make a call to action.”

What that call to action will end up being is something Masslon believes is up to the management of MMMC, and Kaiser. But the authority has been given to the union to make the call on what action they want to take moving forward in negotiations.

“I really feel like where we go from here is up to the employer,” Masslon said. “We first reached out to start negotiations and we didn’t get started until July. I may be wrong, but I believe there were something like 70 emails back and forth. They kept changing the dates. Agreeing to dates, then canceling. I just feel like they were not taking it seriously.”

MMMC said of the negotiations in a press release, “Maui Health has been bargaining in good faith with the UNHCEH that are part of the UNAC union since July 2024. We have reached a number of tentative agreements and continue to make steady progress. Our goal is to reach an agreement that provides excellent compensation and benefits for our employees while ensuring we can continue to provide our community access to the high-quality health care they need and deserve.

“We value and respect all of our employees; they are the very heart of the safe, high-quality and compassionate care we provide. We are committed to continuing to bargain in good faith to reach a fair and equitable agreement and have additional meetings scheduled throughout the month of October.”