OE #701 gets first contract at SW Washington Medical Center

VANCOUVER - Nearly 16 months after workers voted to join Operating Engineers Local 701, a first contract has been ratified at Southwest Washington Medical Center. The pact extends through March 24, 2001.

"The hospital fought us every step of the way," said Local 701 Business Representative Tom Lindberg. "The union spent significant resources getting this contract completed."

The 20-member bargaining unit received wage increases commensurate with what non-union personnel received this year, plus bonuses based on job classification. The unit is broad-based and includes stationary engineers, imaging technicians, bio-med technicians and others. Wage scales range from $17 to more than $22 an hour.

More importantly, though, the bargaining unit improved its pension plan and established an arbitration process for grievances.

Employees moved into the union's defined contribution pension plan with the hospital paying 88 cents an hour the first year and 95 cents an hour the second year.

"It's still below what other hospitals pay, but it's a start," said Lindberg, explaining that the union actually won the entire hospital staff pension increases after management revised its overall plan upon realizing how inadequate it was.

Additionally, the hospital agreed to an arbitration process after fighting it for months. Management originally had insisted on no grievance procedure whatsoever. Instead it wanted to allow workers the latitude to strike over decisions they did not like.

Local 701 complimented its bargaining team members, who were forced to take vacation time to participate in negotiations. The group included newcomers Mike Watters, Scott Shefchek, Chris Dugas and Steve Fike.

Lindberg said the union had presented a full contract proposal based on its collective bargaining agreement with Providence Medical Center on the first day of talks in October 1998. "They fiddled with every word and dragged it on for over a year," he said.

Several-hundred nurses at Southwest Washington Medical Center who voted to join the Washington State Nurses Association on the same day as the Operating Engineers are still a long way from reaching a settlement, Lindberg said.

Now, Operating Engineers Local 701 is turning its attention to Corvallis, where last week it filed for a National Labor Relations Board election for groundskeep-ers and housekeepers at Good Samaritan Hospital. The union already represents stationary engineers there.

Also, a six-person unit at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center voted in a union election Nov. 3. Results of that election were not available at presstime.