PORT ANGELES — A new coalition has called on Olympic Medical Center to go to binding arbitration to resolve a year-and-a-half-long dispute with Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199 NW.
Bill Kildall, organizer of the Clallam County Quality Care Coalition, told OMC commissioners Wednesday night that the group intends to function as a permanent standing committee “dedicated to work corroboratively as friends of the hospital district.”
“We see ourselves as advocates for the common good in making sure that the board of commissioners fulfills its public obligation to this community openly and fairly, consistent with the original mandate this hospital has as a public institution,” Kildall said.
The coalition joined state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege in a call for the seven-member hospital board to settle its dispute with SEIU through a third party.
Van De Wege is not a member of the Quality Care Coalition.
Staffing levels, benefits
Staffing levels and health care benefits are at the core of the dispute.
SEIU Healthcare 1199 NW President Diane Sosne said the union is willing to go to binding arbitration, but she added that the union would rather go back to the bargaining table.
“The status quo is not acceptable,” Sosne said last week.
After negotiations came to an impasse, OMC commissioners Feb. 1 unanimously approved a three-year labor contract for its SEIU employees.
SEIU represents more than 350 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, emergency room technicians, dietary workers and housekeeping staff at the Port Angeles hospital.
Staged 18-hour walkout
After the union threatened an 18-hour walkout last summer, OMC filed an injunction that was eventually upheld in court.
A Kitsap County Superior Court judge ruled that a walk-out would be illegal because the hospital workers are public employees.
More than 40 members of the Clallam County Quality Care Coalition and their supporters attended OMC’s special meeting Wednesday night to appoint a new commissioner.
Although no public comment was on the agenda, board Chairman Dr. John Miles allowed Kildall and an OMC critical-care unit nurse to speak.
“As long as these 18 months of acrimony continue to fester, our community will witness lasting damage to the morale of our health care workers and the degradation of local health care services,” Kildall said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
