A pair of Springfield legislators have attempted to intervene in the labor dispute at McKenzie-Willamette Hospital, which resulted in more than 300 employees walking out in a three-day strike last week.
Sen. Lee Beyer told The Lund Report that he and fellow Springfield Democrat, Rep. John Lively, have written hospital chief executive officer Chad Campbell, urging him to end the strike and offer a new contract that treats these lower-paid workers “fairly.”
“The hospital's argument is that they are offering SEIU workers the same benefit package other workers are getting and a small raise,” Beyer said. “The issue, I believe is that the combination of the two actions may actually leave some at the bottom of the salary schedule with having less take-home pay. Given the profitability of this hospital, I think they can do better.”
The employees, who include certified nursing assistants, laboratory technicians, housekeepers and food service workers among others, are represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 49, and they’ve been working without a contract since the end of 2013.
SEIU is a heavy spender in Democratic Party races, but so is the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems -- of which McKenzie-Willamette is a member. The hospital association’s political action committee spent $3,500 on Lively’s re-election campaign and $2,000 on Beyer’s. Lively didn’t report anything from SEIU, but Local 49 gave $1,000 to Beyer just last week; SEIU Local 503, which represents state workers, gave Beyer $2,500 on Thursday.
Both Beyer and Lively served on the hospital’s board before its current owner, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, took over in 2007.
As Beyer alluded, the hospital nurses, represented by the Oregon Nurses Association, have already accepted a new contract that restructures their healthcare plan and allows them to hold down on a rise in premium costs by signing up for a select-network “Choice” plan. Premiums in that plan rose 4 percent over 2013 versus 9 percent for the standard plan.
But while a nurse’s salary may be able to adjust to the hike in healthcare, the lower-paid workers, paired with a one-time 2.75 percent increase in salary, may end up with a cut in take-home pay compared to the old contract, said Beyer.
Beyer said that the raises proposed by SEIU -- three 2.5 percent raises (one each year) -- would amount to be about $200,000 annually.
“If correct, that number stacked against their $12 million in profit in the last reported year seems to indicate there is room for movement,” he said.
The 2.75 percent raise that the hospital announced last week appeared to be an increase from the initial offer reported by SEIU officials, which would have given a 1 percent raise the first year followed by a 1 to 1.2 percent raise the second year, but it’s unclear whether the strike forced the hospital to increase its offer.
The strike last week, coming just a week before Election Day, featured appearances in support from not only Lively and Beyer but U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio, who represents the southwest quarter of the state, including Eugene and Corvallis but chooses to live in Springfield.
“I remember when this was our community hospital. We didn’t have these issues we’re having now. Here in Oregon we like our unions,” DeFazio said, according to an SEIU press release. “We like quality care, and we want good patient care. Caregivers shouldn’t be exhausted from working double shifts,”
A hospital spokeswoman did not return a request for additional comment for this story, and union representative Jesse Stammler said there have been no additional developments: “Our bargaining team has reached out to management to try and set new bargaining dates but as of yet, they've not heard a response,” he said.
n addition to the dispute over pay and healthcare costs, SEIU Local 49 has filed three complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, citing unfair labor practices.
The Springfield hospital posted an $11.7 million profit in 2012, with a profit margin of 9.3 percent, although those figures were down sharply from the year before. The hospital is also in the middle of an $80 million expansion, which includes a new tower with private rooms for patients and a new neo-natal intensive care unit, according to KVAL.
Chris can be reached at [email protected]
