For nearly a year staff at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital have been working without a contract. A strike now looms on the horizon after mediation fell through last month.
Members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers—representing employees from janitors to respiratory therapists and certified nursing assistants—claim they’re seeking the status quo with cost of living increases, while the administration is trying to rollback benefits and other protections.
“I think our proposals are reasonable,” says Michelle Childs, senior administrative director of human resources at SVMH. “We have to bring the contracts in line with the market.”
The contract, last renewed in 2011 after a strike by hospital staff, stems from negotiations that took place in the 1980s and is full of antiquated language, according to Childs, and should be adjusted to fall inline with best practices in the healthcare industry.
The rank-and-file members of the NUHW counter that squeezing workers when the hospital has averaged nearly $30 million in profit annual over the past three years is unacceptable.
Further fueling discontent is the 16.7 percent increase in top executive compensation from 2013 to 2014 including a $230,000 compensation increase for CEO Pete Delgado.
The hospital’s proposals aren’t based on its financial position, says Childs, but are based on currently market conditions—noting that the market has changed.
“How far is enough?” asks Patty Torres. She works in nutritional services and spoke during public comment at a SVMH board meeting on April 28. “Why do they want to get in the pockets of their people? We have to take a stand.”
The hospital’s proposal includes a 2 percent increase with a 1.5 percent increase for the subsequent year three. The union, on the other hand, is demanding a 2 percent pay increase retroactive to August 2015 with continuing pay increases every six months for the duration of the four-year contract.
Another sticking point is the administration’s insistence that language in the new contract allow for non-union subcontractors. This will provide for more flexibility, says Childs, and that there’s no plan to contract out departments or positions.
“There are tasks that could more efficiently performed by outside vendors,” Childs says.
More than any other of the administration's 30 or so proposed changes to the contract, the subcontractor provision is the one most opposed by the union.
The administration is urging the union to consider fact-finding with a third party after mediation failed. The union does not want to take that approach, NUHW Organizer Grant Hill says, because the process could take more than half a year and the finding might not be beneficial to the workers.
“It looks like we’re on the road to a strike,” Hill says.