PORT ANGELES — Negotiators for Olympic Medical Center and Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW continued contract talks this morning in an effort to stave off a hearing on an unfair labor practices complaint filed by the union, OMC Assistant Administrator Rhonda Curry said this morning.
“This is a good sign,” Curry said.
They unexpectedly began settlement talks Thursday morning at the outset of the hearing, being held before state Public Employment Relations Commission mediator Claire Nickleberry at the Family Medicine Building, 240 W. Front St.
The union has alleged the hospital negotiated in bad faith when hospital commissioners Feb. 1 unanimously approved a three-year contract without the union’s consent.
Earlier report:
PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center and a health care workers union unexpectedly began settlement talks Thursday in their protracted labor dispute — just as a state Public Employment Relations Commission mediator was set to hear the union’s unfair-labor-practices complaint.
Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW alleges the hospital engaged in bad-faith bargaining when commissioners unanimously approved Feb. 1 a three-year contract for SEIU employees without the union’s consent and after the hospital declared the two sides had reached an impasse.
If no agreement were reached between hospital and union representatives Thursday, the hearing, which recessed at about 10:45 a.m., was expected to resume at 9 a.m. today at the Family Medicine Building, 240 W. Front St., mediator Claire Nickleberry said.
State agency’s tasks
The state agency she works for “regulates the relationships between public employers [the state of Washington, local governments, local taxing districts, public schools and community and four-year colleges and universities] concerning representation issues and unfair labor practices,” according to the commission’s website at www.perc.wa.gov.
Attorneys had been scheduled to give opening statements to Nickleberry at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Instead, Nickleberry sent both sides — totaling about a dozen people — into private meeting rooms at the Family Medicine Building shortly after 9 a.m. to determine the evidence that would be presented at the hearing, which was scheduled for two days.
She also asked them to try to reach a settlement if at all possible.
“It’s standard procedure for our process to request the parties to discuss settlement before we go on the record to see if there is any way to settle issues before we go on the record,” Nickleberry said late Thursday morning.
At one point, the group divided into three subgroups and met in separate rooms to discuss issues involved in the complaint.
‘Somewhat uncommon’
Nickleberry said it is “somewhat uncommon” for settlement talks to begin directly before the start of a complaint hearing.
“They will take the rest of the afternoon to see if they can work this out,” Nickleberry said.
“They are giving it their best shot.”
About a dozen hospital employees and union members were in the meeting room for the hearing.
The contract authorized a 3 percent raise for nurses, a 3.5 percent raise for service workers and a 4 percent raise for dietary workers.
The union and hospital hit a roadblock over health care benefits and nurses’ staffing levels.
The hospital countered that the contract gave SEIU workers the same health care benefits as other union, nonunion and management employees at the hospital.
No right to strike
In November, a Kitsap County Superior Court judge ruled an 18-hour walkout threatened by the union would be illegal.
The SEIU had filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the hospital last summer over the stalled contract talks.
It was amended Feb. 22, three weeks after hospital commissioners approved the contract.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
