Hospital workers vote on contract today
Service workers at Washington Hospital will meet today to vote on a tentative contract, according to a statement from Washington Health System, parent of the hospital.
The statement issued Tuesday said, in part, that Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania “plans to hold a vote on the tentative agreement (today). Details and contract specifics are not available for release at this time.”
It added that the contract is for three years.
The venue and time for the meeting could not be determined. One SEIU officer declined comment and another could not be reached.
SEIU’s bargaining committee announced the tentative agreement about 10 p.m. Monday, following about nine hours of negotiations. The union represents about 400 workers in the maintenance, housekeeping and dietary units, plus unit secretaries. They comprise roughly one-fourth of the system’s 1,723 employees.
SEIU members, concerned about health care costs, were seeking a minimum wage of $15 per hour.
Negotiations Monday, at an unspecified location in or near Washington, were the first in nearly eight days. SEIU employees had been working without a contract since Jan. 31, when their three-year pact expired. The two sides negotiated Jan. 30 and 31, with the latter session continuing into the early morning of Feb. 1.
Members voted Feb. 2 to allow the union to issue a 10-day strike notice, and planned a two-day strike Feb. 16 and 17 if a deal wasn’t forged.
Talks began in late December. Monday’s session was the tenth.
If the contract is approved, it would happen under similar circumstances to what occurred almost exactly three years earlier. The union voted to authorize a strike as the contract deadline approached in January 2013. But a walkout was avoided when the pact was ratified Feb. 4.