Contract Negotiation Updates

This update follows the September 23, 2026, negotiation session toward a first contract between Concord Hospital Health System (CHHS) and SEIU, the union representing Franklin and Laconia nurses. 

Our goal remains to reach a fair, sustainable first contract that reflects the value our nurses provide while ensuring Concord Hospital-Franklin and Concord Hospital-Laconia remain strong hospitals that can continue serving their communities.

What We Want You to Know

The parties reached a tentative agreement today on a non-discrimination proposal.

• CHHS revised its bereavement proposal to offer additional flexibility to our team.
• Moved forward language regarding continuing merit increases during bargaining.
• The parties scheduled three bargaining sessions for October, with an additional date reserved if needed.
• Following the conclusion of today’s session, SEIU sent CHHS four additional counterproposals that it said had been prepared for today’s session. While we were disappointed not to have received them during bargaining to review in real time, CHHS will review those proposals and respond as bargaining continues.

CHHS Continues to Negotiate and Make Movement

During today’s session, SEIU reviewed its counterproposals addressing bereavement, the childcare center, and non-discrimination, and later provided a counterproposal on scheduling.

• Our revised bereavement counterproposal provides additional flexibility for per diem nurses following the death or funeral of an immediate family member and allows bereavement time to be taken following either the death or the funeral, regardless of when the funeral occurs.
• The parties also reached a tentative agreement on non-discrimination that meets our goal for a safe and equitable workplace.
• CHHS responded to SEIU’s revised childcare proposal, reinforcing that the existing childcare center is available to employees and noted existing resources available to employees seeking childcare support.
• As we noted in our last update, bargaining-unit nurses at Franklin and Laconia continue to participate in CHHS’s annual merit process while negotiations are underway. To support that process, CHHS also provided SEIU today with a revised Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) confirming that merit increases may continue during bargaining.

The parties also discussed future bargaining dates. Three sessions have been scheduled for October (the 6, 12, and 22), with an additional date reserved (27) if needed. CHHS remains open to an in-person bargaining session and proposed revisiting that option after making further progress in October.

A fair, sustainable contract is fully consistent with our commitment to high-quality care, supporting our nurses and strengthening recruitment and retention. We are proud of the care our teams provide at Franklin and Laconia, and our goal is to continue improving it, including through our work toward a Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade of A and CMS Five-Star status.

Staffing is an important part of that work. Staffing decisions are made by clinical and nursing leaders based on patient volumes, acuity, and clinical needs, with quality, safety, and access to care at the center. We believe those decisions should continue to be made by the leaders closest to patient care.

What it Will Take to Reach Agreement

Today’s tentative agreement and exchange of proposals represent progress, but significant work remains. CHHS will continue to come to the table prepared to negotiate, respond to concerns, and make adjustments where they can help move the parties toward agreement. Reaching a first contract requires both sides to engage on the outstanding issues, exchange proposals, and work to narrow the differences that remain.

We also want to thank everyone for continuing to keep patient care and your day-to-day responsibilities at the center of your work during this process. As a reminder, our existing non-solicitation policy applies consistently to solicitation during working time. We appreciate everyone’s efforts to maintain a professional, productive environment for our patients and colleagues.

We will continue to communicate directly with you and provide clear information about proposals, counterproposals, and progress at the bargaining table.

Thank you for the outstanding care you provide every day to our patients and communities.

This update follows the August 14, 2026, negotiation session toward a first contract between Concord Hospital Health System (CHHS) and SEIU, the union representing Franklin and Laconia nurses. 

Our goal is to reach agreement on a first contract that reflects the value our nurses provide while ensuring Concord Hospital-Franklin and Concord Hospital-Laconia remain strong, sustainable hospitals that can continue serving their communities. That means balancing competitive wages and benefits for our nursing team with the broader needs across these two hospitals.

What We Want You to Know

• CHHS is maintaining a strong baseline of wages and benefits in our proposals. Current wages have increased since CHHS began operating the hospitals: we have provided annual performance-based increases, timely market adjustments, and system employee recognition bonuses.
• We have proposed no reductions. CHHS did not enter bargaining by proposing cuts to nurses’ existing wages or benefits with the expectation of negotiating back to a middle ground.
• SEIU’s current economic proposals would add approximately $18 million in annual costs related to nursing alone. Expenses of this magnitude are simply not practical when we want and need to continue to maintain operations and make the investments necessary to serve our patients and communities.

CHHS Continues to Negotiate and Make Movement

CHHS continues to make movement at the bargaining table. At our most recent session, we relayed seven counterproposals and incorporated changes into those counterproposals in response to concerns raised by SEIU.

• We initially offered six counterproposals, addressing issues raised by SEIU regarding scheduling, earned time, grievance and arbitration, management rights, bereavement time, and definitions of full-time and part-time employees. For example, CHHS revised its proposed definition of a full-time employee from 35 to 30 budgeted hours per week and added another step to the proposed grievance process. We also agreed to reconsider SEIU’s proposal to implement an earned-time donation program.
• Earlier in negotiations, CHHS also modified its seniority counterproposal to accept the union’s proposal that employees’ previous service with LRGH would count toward seniority, a fact the union appeared not to recall during our last session.
• In addition, bargaining-unit nurses have continued to participate in CHHS’s annual merit process while negotiations are underway. While individual merit increases are not – and have never been – guaranteed, nurses have remained eligible for the same process during bargaining.

By comparison, despite the parties not having met since August 11, SEIU presented only a single counterproposal at the beginning of the most recent session and another verbal, not written, counterproposal later in the day following a lengthy caucus. CHHS responded to the first counterproposal after the caucus. The second has still not been provided to CHHS in writing, despite our request.

SEIU also asked CHHS to reconsider several previously rejected proposals without offering different approaches. CHHS responded to each of those requests during the session.

Despite the parties having had nine bargaining sessions to date, we have reached only two tentative agreements. SEIU consistently refuses to make movement on proposals, instead asking CHHS to simply reconsider its initial or latest version. In contrast, CHHS has updated multiple proposals in an effort to find common ground.

We need to see the same willingness from SEIU. We also need an understanding that we cannot return to the financial and operating model that preceded LRGH’s bankruptcy and put regional healthcare access at risk. Reaching a first contract requires both sides to negotiate, make adjustments, and work toward solutions.

Quality and Safe Patient Care Remain Our Priority

A fair, sustainable contract is fully consistent with our commitment to high-quality care, supporting our nurses and strengthening recruitment and retention. We are proud of the care our teams provide at Franklin and Laconia, and our goal is to continue improving it, including through our work toward a Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade of A and CMS Five-Star status.

Staffing is an important part of that work. Staffing decisions are made by clinical and nursing leaders based on patient volumes, acuity, and clinical needs, with quality, safety, and access to care at the center. We believe those decisions should continue to be made by the leaders closest to patient care.

What it Will Take to Reach Agreement

CHHS will continue to come to the table prepared to negotiate and work toward a fair, sustainable first contract. Progress now depends on SEIU matching that commitment by engaging seriously on the outstanding issues, responding to counterproposals and working to narrow the differences that remain.

Our next bargaining session is scheduled for September 23. We will continue to communicate directly with you and provide clear information about proposals, counterproposals, and progress at the bargaining table.

Thank you for the outstanding care you provide every day to our patients and communities.

Sincerely,

Scott Sloane
Chief Financial Officer

Erin Collins
Vice President Nursing

This update follows the August 11, 2026, (three-hour) negotiation session toward a first contract between Concord Hospital Health System (CHHS) and SEIU, the union representing Franklin and Laconia nurses. At every session, the CHHS team works hard to make meaningful progress; however, there are a number of proposals in play, and it takes time to address them in a thoughtful way.

• Union counterproposals: The Union provided a limited set of counterproposals yesterday morning in advance of the session. The Union reviewed those proposals with CHHS at the start of the session. The Union did not provide any additional counters throughout the session.
• Progress on outstanding proposals: CHHS responded with counterproposals on postings and vacancies and health and safety. While we have not yet received Union feedback on these counterproposals, we believe our approach makes additional movement in response to concerns raised by the Union.
• Wages and benefits: CHHS also presented counterproposals addressing wages and benefits. As part of its benefits proposal, we proposed that Franklin and Laconia nurses participate in the benefits model available to other eligible employees across the system. The proposal is intended to establish a consistent approach to benefits while remaining part of the bargaining process.
• Referral bonus: On a separate track, the parties discussed a draft Memorandum of Agreement related to the employee referral bonus. As you may be aware, this is a pilot program CHHS is looking to introduce to help obtain additional RNs. We reached out to the Union about the program in order to obtain its agreement to implement it, and in response, the Union provided a draft MOA. We provided a counterproposal on that agreement near the start of the bargaining session, but the Union has yet to provide a response. This is being addressed separately and is not part of collective bargaining over the first contract.
• Next bargaining session: Both CHHS and SEIU agreed that, given the number of proposals currently under discussion, the next session should focus on a smaller group of selected proposals. The parties intend to mutually agree on what limited number of proposals will be discussed at the next session, which is scheduled for August 28.

CHHS remains focused on working through the proposals in a substantive way and identifying areas where agreement can be reached. Yesterday’s progress on postings and vacancies and health and safety demonstrates that movement is possible when the parties engage on specific issues.

Significant work remains, including on wages, benefits and other outstanding proposals. We remain committed to bargaining collaboratively, professionally and in good faith and will continue to keep you informed as negotiations move forward.

As this negotiation process continues, we can expect that there will be occasional media coverage related to the contract. Our nursing team should know that we are focused on making substantive progress at the table and communicating directly with our nurses, not on bringing these issues to the press. We encourage you to continue to rely on these communications for factual updates on what is happening and ask your manager if you have specific questions. Investing in these hospitals, a team that shares our commitment to high-quality care, and the programs that meet the healthcare needs of this region remains a priority for CHHS.

Thank you for the outstanding care you provide every day to our patients and communities.

Sincerely,

Scott Sloane
Chief Financial Officer

Erin Collins
Vice President Nursing

This update follows the August 4, 2026, negotiation session toward a first contract between Concord Hospital Health System (CHHS) and SEIU, the union representing Franklin and Laconia nurses.

• All new proposals on the table: Yesterday, CHHS and SEIU completed the process of putting all new proposals on the table. This marks a significant point in the development of the contract. For the first time, we can comprehensively evaluate the full package and address the issues holistically.
• CHHS proposals: We presented four new proposals addressing health and safety, definitions of full-time and part-time employees, leaves of absence and vacancies, as well as counterproposals on seniority, uniforms and miscellaneous provisions.
• Timeline: While we are all eager to reach an agreement, it is important to remember that substantive negotiations have been underway for only four months and that a typical first union contract takes an average of 15 months to negotiate. Although we met in February, that meeting focused solely on ground rules, and a discussion of contract proposals did not begin until our next session on April 23.
• Next sessions: The next session will be August 11, and we have scheduled three additional bargaining dates: August 28, September 14, and September 23. CHHS remains committed to being flexible and meeting regularly and productively.

CHHS is focused on identifying areas where it can address priorities raised by the Union. For example, SEIU has emphasized the importance of recognizing nurses’ service at predecessor hospitals when determining seniority. Although the Union did not modify its prior seniority proposal, CHHS proactively moved forward and incorporated prior service in its latest counterproposal on seniority for benefit accruals.

While CHHS and SEIU teams spent approximately an hour reviewing proposals and counterproposals together, SEIU made limited movement on many of the issues discussed yesterday. Specifically, SEIU made only modest changes to several counter proposals on which we had offered counterproposals. Further, on some counter proposals, SEIU did not make any changes at all.

Significant differences remain, and reaching an agreement will require meaningful movement and compromise on both sides. The Union explained that it wants to review CHHS’s economic counter proposals before making further movement on many other proposals, including non-economic proposals, claiming that it views all proposals as connected to economics. We intend to begin responding to economic and other proposals at the August 11 session. In doing so, we will consider the individual and combined impact of the proposals on patient care, employees, and the financial health of our hospitals. Our goal is to support both our employees and the ability of Laconia and Franklin hospitals to continue providing valuable healthcare services to our communities.

We remain committed to bargaining collaboratively, professionally, and in good faith. We will keep you informed as the process moves forward.

Thank you for the outstanding care you provide every day to our patients and communities.

Sincerely,

Erin and Scott