Valley Medical Center: Members overwhelmingly ratify new contract!

After three months of bargaining, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members at Valley Medical Center ratified a new three year contract that makes major breakthroughs and raises standards for healthcare workers in Washington state. For the first time, RNs, Service Workers and LPNs bargained full contracts together and received equivalent raises equal to almost 12% over the three year contract.

Maintaining Affordable Family Healthcare Coverage
Maintaining our healthcare benefits was one of our top priorities in this bargaining. We’re glad management recognized the important role healthcare benefits play in recruiting and retaining staff.

Our Medical Plan will:
Continue $0 premium family coverage for Fulltime Medical on Co-pay plan
Have No increase to co-pays or deductibles on Medical plans.
Have No increase to premiums for Part-time staff.
Have No increase to premiums for Dental Plan
Have No Increase to co-pays or deductibles on Dental Plans.

Bargaining Breakthroughs
At our statewide Delegate Assembly in January, Delegates established our union-wide bargaining goals. We made great progress at Valley toward those goals.

Our major breakthroughs include:

• Fair wages that recruit and retain healthcare workers. For the first time, Service workers will receive a 4% raise and our nurse wages will continue to keep us at or close to the highest in the area. Our premiums and differentials will either meet or exceed the standards in the area.
• Training for All. A first for Washington state healthcare workers will be our new multi-employer training fund that will provide career counseling services, case management and tuition vouchers for workers to move up a career ladder into high demand healthcare careers.
• Stronger Subcontracting protections.VMC currently has no plans to subcontract any of our work, however, if they were to consider such an option we would receive 180 days notice and meet to discuss reasonable alternatives and/or preferential hiring options with the new subcontractor.
• Implementation of the new staffing law. Registered Nurses will now have a voice in creating the staffing plans for each unit in the hospital.
• Organizing rights for non-members. If Valley Medical Center opens a new clinic or location, those workers will become SEIU members. This also allows our union to organize non-union workers without interference.

In addition, our new contract also includes:

• The use of break-relief nurses on med-surg units.
• Stronger staffing language for service workers
• Mandatory certifications for service workers will now be paid for by the employer.
• A stronger voice for clinic workers to engage and problem solve workplace issues through labor-management committees.
• New RN floating language that creates clinical groupings. When floated outside of the clinical grouping the nurse will receive a $2.50 float premium.


Our wage breakthroughs:

• Service workers won wage increases of 4% for the first time
• New filler steps and top steps for all bargaining units and all job classes.
• Nurse wages that keep us at or close to the highest rates in the area.
• No delays: 2008 wage and premium increases will be retroactive to July 1. (contract expired .
  June 30)

Konnie Campagna, RN

Birth Center

“We spent a lot of time talking about the need to bring the new staffing law into our contract and the importance of maintaining our healthcare benefits. Quality staffing and quality benefits are huge recruitment and retention tools and VMC really stepped up! In the end, we have a great contract that we should all be proud of.”

 

Our Bargaining Team members: Joyce Dixson Margo Thayer Nance Moore Barrette Knutsen Nancy Massingale Cozy Brown Janice Bell Sue Harmon Beverly Giannetti Mary Hutchins Mary Ann Gibbs Tiffany Byrd Dede Lebleu-Robinette Helen Van Allen Konnie Campagna Cynthia Morrison Patsy Jahnke Mercy Curtis Calvin Ledbetter Tamara Peters Shannea Day Billie Atwood Bryan Warner Lita Steward Traci Wiley Sonja St. John Stephanie Lilje Llyn McKerracher