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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bonner General nurses plan vote on unionizing

Registered nurses at Sandpoint’s Bonner General Hospital will decide Thursday whether to join the Teamsters Local 690 of Spokane.

It’s the third time in recent years that the 112 nurses at the hospital have been asked to organize. Previous attempts failed and today there are no unions representing any of the hospital’s 398 workers.

Hospital Chief Executive Officer Sheryl Rickard acknowledged that the hospital and nurses have disagreements, including lower pay than nurses earn at Kootenai County Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene.

Nurses in favor of unionizing contend the problems run deeper than wages. They want a formal grievance policy, negotiated work rules and strong say in hospital policy regarding patient care.

Teamsters business agent and President Val Holstrom said nurses were unwilling to speak openly about their concerns or criticize management.

Holstrom said the Teamsters were asked by a group of nurses to help direct an organizing effort after failing to resolve problems.

Like many hospitals, 48-bed Bonner General is mired in a financial struggle. Rickard said the hospital lost more than a quarter-million dollars last year. It was an unusual loss for the nonprofit community hospital that normally records a narrow operating margin on about $40 million in patient revenue.

The loss forced changes that have been unpopular, Rickard said. Among them: employee attrition and asking nurses and other employees to be flexible and work at different stations and hours to cover the mix of patients.

This year Bonner General is on pace to end the year in the black, though the hospital’s reserve will remain well below industry norms and below the comfort level of management.

Wages are lagging, Rickard said, partly because of inadequate reimbursement rates from the federal government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Bonner General gets a lower reimbursement than Kootenai Medical Center because it does not offer certain trauma services. And it is too big to qualify for certain reimbursement rules designed to help small rural hospitals.

“It’s really hit us hard,” she said. “We’re kind of stuck in the middle.”

The reimbursement rate scenario mirrors one that has played out at Spokane’s larger hospitals as they struggle to consistently operate in the black.

The Bonner General pay scale is lower, too, Rickard said, because of the business reality of chic Western towns: Sandpoint is a highly desirable place to live and there’s no shortage of skilled, well-educated people, including nurses.

“That’s something that plays out across this area,” she said.

Holstrom said more than half of the registered nurses at Bonner General signed a request of management to recognize them as a union.

Rickard said she denied the request in July because she wants all nurses to be able to vote. Managers have since tried to deflate the union drive with its own information campaign. The Teamsters continue their efforts.

Rickard said she considered the entire episode difficult but fair and will accept the results of the vote, which will be overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.