Strike Looming at Providence St. Joseph

Registered nurses and service and tech employees at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank have served notice they intend to strike at 6 a.m. on June 12. The approximately 600 nurses, who are members of the SEIU 121 RN union, and the approximately 850 service and tech workers, who are members of the SEIU UHW union, have been in negotiations with the hospital since Feb. 12. The two sides are hoping to be able to stave off a strike by reaching an agreement at scheduled negotiations on June 4 and 7. “We’re quite disappointed that they gave us notice to strike,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bernie Klein. “Our hope is we reach an agreement with them as soon as possible.” Temporary nurses and service and tech workers will replace the striking employees on that day. According to Sue Weinstein, a registered nurse and executive director of SEIU 121 RN, the nurses and service and tech workers are frustrated because the hospital is refusing to acknowledge key issues. “There are several different issues, but what’s really important for the nurses is patient care,” Weinstein said. The nurses, Weinstein said, want a dispute resolution system with a binding third party able to make decisions in areas where two sides can’t come to an agreement. Other hospitals, she said, have that system in place. “Providence St. Joseph is refusing to agree to the same language,” Weinstein said. The service and tech employees are frustrated, Weinstein said, because the hospital has been sub-contracting laundry services for the last few years to save money instead of using their own employees. “It decreased the quality of the laundry and the care,” Weinstein said. But the most important reason for the strike, she said, is constant staffing shortages and concerns about employee pay. The hospital, she said, doesn’t have enough nurses and ancillary help to provide quality care. The nursing assistants are given too heavy of a workload and are stretched way too thin, Weinstein said. In addition, she said, the nurses may get paid an average salary compared to other area hospitals when they are hired at St. Joseph, but the pay scale doesn’t keep up with pay rates as nurses gain more experience. Weinstein says if the issues continue to not be resolved, other strikes may be on the horizon. “At this time, they see no other way to deal with these specific issues,” Weinstein said.