Approximately 1,000 members of the Service Employees International Union 1199NW and the Union of American Physicians and Dentists began a five-day strike May 12 at PeaceHealth Medical Group clinics and Bellingham, Wash.-based PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.
Six things to know:
1. The strike affects service, technology and laboratory caregivers and advanced practice clinicians, such as physician assistants, according to a health system statement shared with Becker’s. It does not include nurses.
2. PeaceHealth, a nine-hospital system based in Vancouver, Wash., said Sound Physicians, which contracts with the health system to provide inpatient hospitalist services at St. Joseph, also received a strike notice from its union for its physicians. Sound Physicians has arranged for replacement hospitalists during the walkout.
3. Union members authorized a strike in April, according to the Cascadia Daily News and The Bellingham Herald. The SEIU and the UAPD have been negotiating with PeaceHealth on new labor contracts for months.
4. PeaceHealth said during negotiations, the health system has “proposed a competitive compensation package that ensures our pay rates are at or above market rates. Under our current wage proposal to SEIU, caregivers would receive wage increases ranging from 15% to 36% over the four-year contract. Similarly, our current proposal to our advanced practice clinicians would provide market-based increases of up to 10% in the first year and maintain top of market positioning for that group of providers.”
5. SEIU members contend that at the bargaining table, PeaceHealth has not adequately addressed their concerns. “We’d rather be caring for patients. But with PeaceHealth refusing to address low wages and reduced health care benefits for the people who care for our community, we have no other choice,” Courtney Sly, a trauma registrar, said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “We hope this strike is a wakeup call to PeaceHealth that paying huge salaries to executives, while staff responsible for providing essential care and services are struggling to afford housing and other basic needs is not in the best interests of their business or our community.”
6. UAPD members contend that Peace Health has disregarded their suggestions for improving working conditions and sustainability. “We’re taking a stand — for our patients, for safe staffing levels, and for a sustainable future in Whatcom and Skagit,” the union wrote on its Facebook page.
