Hospital workers, PeaceHealth approve new contract

Health care workers at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center agreed to a new labor contract with the hospital in a vote that concluded Sept. 6. The roughly 900 members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW who work at St. Joe’s, from housekeeping staff and certified nursing aides to MRI technicians and emergency room workers, received a 7.5% raise in the first year of their new, two-year contract, said Ramon Castellanos, a respiratory therapist who was on the Service Employees International Union barga