Nurses at Washington's Yakima Valley Memorial Set to Picket Over Contract

Tags: executive compensation | health care management | hospital administration | hospital CEO | hospital management | hospital nurse | nurses | Rick Linneweh | salary health care | Yakima Valley Memorial

Nurses at Yakima (Wash.) Valley Memorial Hospital plan to picket outside the hospital as negotiations for a new contract have stalled between the administration and the nurses' union, according to a KNDO report.

The nurses' union is asking for a 2 percent pay raise for every year of the new contract and to continue their defined benefits plan rather than converting to a 401(k), the report said. It is also asking for mandatory union membership for nurses.

However, the Yakima Valley Memorial administration has walked away from the bargaining table, and it said it thinks any nurse should be able to choose whether or not to join a union.

There has been a pension and wage freeze as of July 1, and nurses have pointed to CEO Rick Linneweh's 2008 compensation, when he made $3 million, as an argument against the current freezes.

Related Articles on Hospital Picketing:

Nurses at HCA's Las Palmas Medical Center Picket Over Staffing Issues
Union Members at Michigan's Mercy Health Picket, Call for Ousting of CEO
University of Michigan Health System Nurses Picket Over Contract

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