Picketing union members crowding the sidewalk outside of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center on Thursday erupted into cheers as passing motorists honked their horns in support.
Over the loudspeaker, an organizer led a call-and-response chant: “Fix,” she called out. “Staffing,” the crowd of about 100 people shouted back as they waved signs saying “A living wage is not a luxury,” “Safe staffing saves lives” and “Honk 4 fair wages.”
There was no progress between the hospital and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare 1199NW in the last bargaining session, on Jan. 2, said Jennifer Williams, a vascular ultrasound technician at PeaceHealth and a union member.
It was the 12th bargaining session since September. The contract expired on Nov. 16.
“It is the right fight. It is the right thing that we asking for, and we are not going to stop until we get it,” said Jane Hopkins, the president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “We are not going to stop because our community needs this. Our patients need this. We’re not just doing it for us.”
Described as an “informational picket line” the Jan. 9 event was designed to generate public support for the union workers and pressure PeaceHealth to compromise during the bargaining process.
Despite the signs, the employees are not on strike. The more than 900 SEIU union members are continuing to work at St. Joseph, taking part in the picket line on their breaks, during lunch or on their personal time.
“We do not want to go on strike, but we will if we have to, because we’re going to put our patients first, and we’re going to put this community first,” Hopkins said, noting that the well-being of the union workers has a ripple effect throughout the entire community.
Spokesperson Amy Drury said in an email that PeaceHealth looks “forward to reengaging in constructive, good faith bargaining to reach agreements for our caregivers that are fair, competitive and sustainable.”
The union represents a sweeping group of PeaceHealth employees including technicians, lab professionals and service workers, such as environmental services staff.
“‘Just not interested’ seems to be their MO,” Williams told CDN on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
The two sides remain far apart on issues including wages, safety issues stemming from short staffing and medical benefits, a SEIU news release stated.
Wages for union employees currently range from $16.86 an hour to $31.48 an hour based on position and experience, according to a contract obtained by CDN.
Williams pointed out that the lowest-paid workers are now making less than the Bellingham minimum wage of $17.66, which took effect on Jan. 2 this year.
The last wage increase went into effect in September 2023, said Kenia Escobar, a communication director for SEIU.
Drury explained the union was seeking a wage scale increase of 34% over three years for the highest-paid positions and up to 60% for the lowest-paid positions.
“We view the union’s proposal as highly unrealistic,” Drury said in an email.
The union “has provided no justification for these increases based on local market pay rates or expected inflation rates for the next three years,” she continued.
SEIU union researchers have provided data to their bargaining team based on trauma 2 medical centers and job titles at similar union employers in Washington, along with cost of living data, market demand and other factors, Escobar said.
Drury explained that PeaceHealth relies on independent surveys and market data to monitor pay rates for the positions.
“We base our pay rates most heavily on Whatcom and Skagit County data,” Drury said. “The data shows we are at or above market for most positions represented by SEIU 1199NW.”
St. Joseph is the only trauma two medical center in those counties.
Drury noted that for positions that are behind those targets, the hospital has proposed additional increases.
“Our history of pay increases over the last 10 years has exceeded the rate of inflation overall,” Drury said. “Our current offer for our SEIU-represented caregivers would provide most caregivers with more than a 20% increase over 4 years, with many receiving increases of 25-30%.”
SEIU bargaining members, however, point out that keeping up with inflation is not the same as keeping up with cost of living, which has steeply increased in Bellingham.
Williams noted that the staff keep a food bank operating for PeaceHealth employees at the hospital.
“Food shortage should not be a thing when you’re working 40 hours a week,” Williams said. “PeaceHealth needs to do better.”
The SEIU union workers were joined on the informational picket line by two other PeaceHealth bargaining groups represented by Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD).
The advanced practice clinician group, which includes physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives, represents roughly 100 PeaceHealth employees who have been bogged down by negotiations for more than a year.
“The employer is just not budging,” said Joe Crane, an organizing coordinator for UAPD.
PeaceHealth hired Tony Byergo, with Seattle-based Ogletree Deakins, to help it with a number of its union negotiations. Multiple people involved in the processes have told CDN Byergo uses bullying tactics.
“The negotiator is extremely disrespectful,” Crane said. “He is rude. He cuts people off. He yells at them.”
Byergo declined to comment.
The other UAPD group joining the picket line are PeaceHealth hospitalists — physicians and nurse practitioners. The group won a National Labor Relations Court hearing in May to create a joint-employer union, legally connecting their labor management agency, Sound Physicians, and the hospital they work at, PeaceHealth — forcing all key players to the table during negotiations.
At its core, the group said it voted to unionize because they wanted to have a voice in their working conditions and the way they care for their patients.
Drury explained that PeaceHealth is balancing taking care of employees against its “responsibility to keep health care costs for our patients and the community manageable.”
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
