Gilroy
– Hours before 160 Saint Louise Regional Hospital workers were
to initiate a one-day strike to protest months-long contract
negotiations, a settlement was reached.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Hours before 160 Saint Louise Regional Hospital workers were to initiate a one-day strike to protest months-long contract negotiations, a settlement was reached.
In the early morning hours Wednesday, negotiators from the Daughters of Charity Health Systems – which owns and operates Saint Louise – and a hospital workers’ union agreed on a four-year contract that increases wages and training pay, and gives the workers more of a say in hospital staffing.
Saint Louise’s clerical staff, housekeepers, food service workers, nursing assistants and lab technicians have been working without contracts since theirs expired April 30.
A respiratory therapist at Saint Louise for the past eight years said the new contract will provide stability for the hospital workers after six months of negotiations.
“We are so thrilled to have it done, and to have a good contract that takes care of everybody,” said Susan Reddell, the chief steward for the Service Employees International Union at Saint Louise.
Contracts were settled at four hospitals in the Daughters of Charity group, covering 1,500 workers at Saint Louise in Gilroy, San Jose’s O’Connor Hospital, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, and Seton Medical Center Coastside in Moss Beach.
“Everyone’s been working to come to an agreement,” said Vivian Smith, hospital spokeswoman. “In the last two weeks, they’ve been meeting night and day.”
Tuesday’s meeting stretched into Wednesday with the threat of a one-day strike looming. The workers at all four hospitals gave notice Nov. 1 of their intent to strike if a settlement wasn’t reached by Wednesday, Nov. 10.
“(The notice) was very effective in letting them know we were serious about settling the contract now,” Reddell said. “And the issues are very important to us, to our jobs of caring for the patients.”
One “huge” change, Reddell said, will greatly improve patient care. The caregivers will now have an equal voice in setting staffing levels.
“We have a committee of management … and staff who are going to be able to meet on a regular basis and discuss issues that affect patient care, and staffing is a big piece of that: Making sure we have the right mix and right number of people,” she said.
If disputes arise between management and workers, a neutral party will be called in to help with a resolution, according to a union representative.
The workers also succeeded in setting up a fund to pay for continuing their education and training. Saint Louise will contribute 0.22 percent of employees’ pay to the fund.
The fund will be used to pay employees both for time spent receiving education or training, as well as for tuition reimbursement, Reddell said.
“It’s expensive to upgrade, and many of us would like to do that,” she said. “It’s so important that we retain staff who are committed because we really develop loyalties to our facility and to our community.”
Under the new contract, for example, the fund will give a clerical worker who wants to be a respiratory therapist more of the means to pursue that goal.
“It gives the opportunity to give committed people the opportunity to serve in a more fulfilling application,” Reddell said.
Smith said Wednesday she had not had time to review the details, but noted that wages, benefits, training and retirement were all improved. She did not know what immediate impact the contract agreement might have on patient care at the hospital.
The union said employees will receive minimum pay increases of 16 percent and benefit improvements. The group had been asking for health insurance coverage for retirees, which it said would provide more incentive for employees to stay in their positions.
Registered nurses are not covered by this contract because they are represented by a separate union. Doctors and administrators do not have a union at Saint Louise.
Had the hospital and its employees not reached an agreement by Wednesday, the hospital was prepared with a contingency plan in case of a strike, Smith said.
“Everybody, all the associates at Saint Louise, … always have the patient’s comfort and peace foremost in their minds, so everyone was working to ensure patient’s were taken care of.”
The hospital workers last resorted to striking in 2002, when they picketed for one day during negotiations for the recently expired contract.
