Hospital Workers to Vote on New Contract
By The Business Press, Ontario, Calif.
Oct. 22–Union workers at two inland hospitals will vote this week on a tentative contract that grants wage increases, a career training program and patient care committees.
Nearly 7,000 nurses, radiology technicians and other health care workers at 14 hospitals, including John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio and Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, will vote at various times this week on a new agreement reached the second weekend of October.
The union will then hold a final vote count.
The new contract covers union workers through Dec. 31 2010. “The average wage increase is going to be 29% and the maximum wage increase is going to be 37%,” union spokesman Mason Stockstill said.
The deal caps more than a year of negotiations between Service Employees International Union locals United Healthcare Workers West and 121RN and Dallas-based hospital owner Tenet Healthcare Corp. The original contract expired in December.
The union in September announced layoffs of patient care providers at several hospitals including 10 at John F. Kennedy Memorial. The union expected a meeting with the Indio hospital’s management to determine whether the firings were necessary and to explore options available to the workers, including jobs at other hospitals, Barbara Lewis, the union’s administrative vice president, told The Business Press.
Separately, the California Nurses Association in Oakland announced Oct. 18 it has filed papers with the state Public Employee Relations Board. The union wants a state mediator to help untangle snarled contract negotiations with University of California system over a new deal for 10,000 registered nurses working in the system’s medical and health centers, including UC Riverside.
“The next step is, we’re jointly declaring an impasse,” said Beth Kean, the union’s chief representative. “We asked the state to appoint a mediator.”
Under state law, if mediation fails, a fact-finding panel led by a neutral third party will propose a settlement, the union release said.
“If we’re not able to resolve that, we are allowed to strike down the road after we’ve gone through these processes,” Kean said.
The original two-year agreement expired Sept. 30. Negotiations have been in play since April, a union release said.
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