PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center and one of its largest unions have settled new workers’ contracts, ending an 18-month battle over health care benefits and staffing.
“All employees in the hospital division now have the same benefits,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis said.
The public hospital district and Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW approved the two-year collective bargaining agreements for 363 nurses, service workers and dietary workers Tuesday night.
The agreements were favored by all seven hospital commissioners and “overwhelmingly approved” by union membership, SEIU spokeswoman Linnae Riesen said.
‘A priority for us’
“It was a priority for us to settle the contract at the bargaining table, and we are proud to say we accomplished that,” said Diane Sosne, president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.
The new contracts replace the three-year accords that hospital commissioners passed Feb. 1 without the union’s consent.
The sides reached a tentative agreement March 28 after a state Public Employment Relations Commission mediator was to begin adjudicating the union’s unfair-labor-practices complaint.
“We made significant inroads with the hospital when it comes to staffing,” said Ginny Majewski, an OMC nurse and member of the bargaining team.
OMC agrees to establish unit-based staffing subcommittees to give front-line staff the ability to weigh in on staffing levels.
The document does not contain guaranteed staffing, something the union had publicly called for.
“Olympic Medical Center and SEIU recognize that adequate staffing is a necessary component in providing safe, quality care,” the contract says.
In a memorandum, OMC “confirms its commitment to budget for and hire employees consistent with such nurse staffing plans as may be approved by the organization.”
Majewski said the new standard means nurses and health care workers who care for patients every day will have a direct say in what staffing should be.
New stipulations
Richard Newman, OMC chief human resources officer, said the key differences between the February contracts and those approved Tuesday night include:
■ Reinstatement of annual longevity steps.
■ A merger of the service and dietary units.
■ A 10 percent cap, rather than 15 percent, in cuts to state-funded benefits.
■ 180 days notice before subcontracting.
■ Job protection if the hospital were to be sold.
The new contract does not change the health care benefits — full coverage for employees, 50 percent coverage for a spouse and 85 percent for dependents — and maintains a first-year 3 percent raise for nurses, 3.5 percent raise for service employees and 4 percent raise for dietary workers.
The second-year raise is still 1 percent for each group.
“With these latest settlements, OMC has negotiated contracts for all represented employees that reduce a benefit cost structure that was no longer sustainable,” Eric Lewis said in a statement.
“At the same time, we believe these are fair settlements that provide a competitive wage and benefit package for our employees.”
SEIU’s last contract with OMC expired in October 2010.
Broken-down talks
Talks subsequently broke down over health care benefits and staffing levels.
The stalled negotiations became a public controversy last summer, when the union threatened an 18-hour walkout at the hospital Aug. 11.
Lewis said it would have cost $600,000 to hire and train replacement workers.
A week before the walk-out, a Kitsap County Superior Court judge issued an injunction to stop the union from striking.
Meanwhile, SEIU filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint and staged a picket near the hospital to voice its demands about staffing and the cost of health care.
Union members and their supporters placed signs in yards calling on the hospital to “be fair to nurses” and to “settle a fair contract.”
Community support
“Our community really stood behind us to say that staffing was a priority at the hospital,” said Linda Bryant, an OMC nurse and member of the bargaining team.
“We appreciate the support we received and the message that it sent: Patients should come first. It’s our honor to care for the people of this community.”
The unfair-labor-practices complaint was amended Feb. 22, three weeks after hospital commissioners unilaterally approved the prior contracts.
The union alleged the hospital negotiated in bad faith.
OMC countered that the contract gave SEIU workers the same benefits as other hospital employees, including management, and that most hospitals do not include nurses’ staffing levels in contracts.
The new SEIU contracts do not affect the three-year collective bargaining agreements the hospital negotiated with its 374 United Food and Commercial Workers 21 workers last year.
“All negotiated agreements involve some degree of compromise on both sides.”
Both sides “agreed to withdraw any pending legal actions,” according to a joint statement released March 29.
“I believe everyone is eager to move forward,” Lewis said.
“We look forward to working with our excellent employees and medical staff to maintain high-quality services for our patients and to keep OMC a locally controlled, locally run public district hospital.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com
