Longview hospital workers settle after one-day strike

LONGVIEW, Wash. — About 400 workers at St. John Medical Center here held a one-day strike Oct. 14 calling for their employer to pay more of the cost of family health coverage.

Management didn’t change its position on that issue, but two weeks after the strike it moved in the union’s direction on wages and other items, and workers voted Nov. 1 to ratify a new three-year agreement.

St. John Medical Center is part of PeaceHealth, a Catholic-owned non-profit system run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. Besides the Longview facility, PeaceHealth operates Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, and hospitals in Cottage Grove and Florence, Oregon; Bellingham, Wash.; and Ketchikan, Alaska.

The unit that struck, represented by Portland-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 49, includes certified nursing assistants; secretaries; radiology, surgical medical, and laboratory assistants; anesthesiology and pharmacy technicians, and food service and housekeeping staff.

Before the strike, hospital negotiators had been saying the union bargaining team didn’t represent the wishes of the workers. The strike was intended to show management that the bargaining team had the support of the workers.

Chief negotiator Lynn-Marie Crider said management may have been surprised workers followed through with the strike threat: “There’s been a history of the union giving strike notice and settling on the eve of the strike,” she said.

Only two workers in the striking unit crossed the picket line, Crider said.

The hospital remained open during the strike.

Registered nurses at the hospital belong to the Washington State Nurses Association. Their contract, which doesn’t expire for another year, contains a no-strike clause, meaning their contract didn’t permit them to honor the picket lines of other unions.

The two sides had been bargaining since June; the previous contract expired Sept. 30.

Full-time workers in the unit have fully-paid health coverage for themselves, but they’ve had to pay 50 percent of the cost of full-family health coverage — over $300 a month, not including vision and dental. The union wanted management to pay 60 percent of the total cost of family coverage; management agreed to pay 60 percent of the increases. Crider called it “a step in the right direction,” and said she thinks the strike helped improve management’s offer.

On wages, workers had called for raises of 5.25, 5, and 5 percent, but settled for 3.25 percent annual raises.

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