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August 12, 2010 in City
Tentative contract stops hospital strike
Union workers at Deaconess, Valley to vote on deal
Unionized health care workers at Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center will vote on a new labor contract today and Friday.
Details of the tentative agreement that prevented a one-day strike Wednesday have not been disclosed.
Union members will see the agreement for the first time today and Friday, said officials with Service Employees International Union 1199NW. The bargaining team recommends passage of the deal that was reached about 5 a.m. Wednesday, two hours before the scheduled strike, said SEIU spokeswoman Linnae Riesen.
Hospital executives said the deal was reached with the help of a federal mediator, who recommended the sides accept the agreement.
The union represents 950 employees of the two hospitals, which are owned by Community Health Systems Inc., a Tennessee corporation recognized as the nation’s largest for-profit hospital operator.
SEIU is among the nation’s largest organized labor groups, and its Seattle affiliate representing the hospital workers is among the largest in Washington state.
Details of the agreement could be released this week, including the length of the contract, compensation, benefit changes, and workplace and grievance policies.
“We value all of our employees and are very glad to have reached mutually acceptable agreements for those covered by collective bargaining agreements,” William Gilbert, chief executive officer of Deaconess Medical Center, said in a news release issued Wednesday.
Union members have been working since December 2008 without a contract.
During that time union members have accused hospital management of unfair labor practices, including the changing of benefits without bargaining, union-busting efforts and other issues. The company has denied the accusations.
Relations between the two entities reached a boil this summer as the union charges were taken up by the National Labor Relations Board as part of an administrative trial.
The hospitals and employees sought to assure the public that the disagreement did not pose an immediate threat to patient care.
The union represents technologists – such as respiratory therapists and radiology, ultrasound, medical laboratory and surgical technologists – and service workers such as housekeepers, food service workers, nursing assistants and health unit coordinators.
Registered nurses at Valley are unionized. Registered nurses at Deaconess voted two years ago to drop their union representation.
Parishes giving $1.5 million toward settling sex cases 
deacon46 on August 12 at 7:58 a.m.
This community has forgotten that before CHS bought Deaconess this hospital and Valley were near bankrupt. This union and this settlement will delay Deaconess from becoming a financially viable hospital. Deaconess has received a lot of money from CHS but it must stand on its own feet financially. Like all businesses/employers. Money that would have gone to improving patient care will go to these employess. Who by the way were being paid, before this settlement, fair and competitive wages and worked within industry common rules. I believe these employess will loose, as the community will, in the longer term as the hospital will need to use more money for wages and less for expanding and hiring. The argument by the union for higher wages being needed is with the background of the reality of 9.5% unemployment, and worsing economic times. Some of these union folks may find themselves unemployed as the hospital struggles. There are no other jobs for most of these union members anywhere else in Spokane.