With the tentative agreement, hospital workers averted a one-day strike set for June 9.
The three-year tentative agreement covers 680 employees at Santa Rosa (Calif.) Memorial Hospital and 150 at Petaluma (Calif.) Valley Hospital. It includes mediation of patient care issues to resolve staffing and other problems, wage increases and “a commitment from St. Joseph Health to work with its staff to assess and meet staffing needs throughout the hospitals,” the union said.
Under the tentative agreement, caregivers would receive 5 percent increases in the first and second years of the three-year contract, and a 3.25 percent increase in the third year, plus an immediate 6 percent market-adjustment increase for roughly half the workers at each facility. St. Joseph also agreed to freeze medical premiums for the duration of the agreement, beginning in 2017, and no further changes to benefits for the life of the contract, according to the union.
Hospital workers are slated to vote to ratify or reject the tentative agreement within the next few weeks.
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