Hospital workers issue strike notice
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter A majority of Washington Hospital’s SEIU employees voted to authorize a two-day strike Tuesday night. Shown, from left, are Melissa Duran, nursing assistant, Sally Berdine, chapter president, and Erica Williams, dining assistant.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter A majority of Washington Hospital’s SEIU employees voted to authorize a two-day strike Tuesday night.
Workers at Washington Hospital voted Tuesday to allow their union, Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania, to issue a 10-day strike notice.
Employees will hold a two-day strike Feb. 16 and 17 if no contract resolution is reached.
Sally Berdine, president of the Washington chapter of SEIU Healthcare, said 89 percent of members who voted agreed to issue the strike notice. She said they will be taking the results to leadership today and hope to head back to the bargaining table.
“We’re concerned about the cost of our health benefits being way too much for what we’re making. We’re just asking for a fair and reasonable rate increase in pay and our health benefits not to get ridiculous,” Berdine said. “We want to get back to the table and get a contract settled, where we can work with it and live within it.”
Throughout Tuesday, hospital workers represented by SEIU attended meetings at the Ramada Inn to hear details of the most recent contract negotiations and decide their next move.
In a statement issued earlier Tuesday, Washington Health System appeared to be leaving the door open for more talks, stating it “remains committed to providing a quality work environment for all of our team members.
“This includes a safe workplace, the potential for advancement and a market-competitive wage and benefit package for employees and their eligible dependents.”
While the health system also expressed regret the marathon negotiating sessions of the past weekend did not produce a new contract, it said that it remains “committed to an outcome that moves our team members forward, maintains the financial strength of WHS to carry out our mission of great patient care and addresses the public’s concern with the high cost of health care.
“We look forward to achieving a mutually beneficial agreement.”
The union and WHS began contract talks on a new contract in December. The SEIU’s current three-year pact expired Sunday.
Union workers, who include those in maintenance, housekeeping, dietary and unit secretaries, are seeking a minimum of $15 per hour for all of those represented by SEIU. The 400 members comprise about one-fourth of the payroll of WHS, the parent of the hospital, which has a total of 1,723 employees.
In the week prior to last weekend’s marathon talks, union members voted overwhelmingly to authorize its bargaining committee to send a 10-day strike notice, if necessary.
Said nursing assistant Melissa Duran, “We want to provide good quality care. In order to do that, we need the staff to do that, and with that being said, we also need our wages to reflect that. We can’t keep people because the pay’s not there, the pay and the hours.
“We all want the same thing. We want affordable health coverage, we want to be able to take care of our families and we want to be able to service the patients. And I don’t think that’s asking a lot,” she said.