Monroe health care workers picket for new contract

MONROE — Dozens of workers, union staff and supporters gathered outside a Monroe hospital Wednesday afternoon to draw attention to stalled contract negotiations between about 170 health care workers and their employer, EvergreenHealth.

Nurse Laura Steere lives in Stanwood, works on call and serves as a member of the bargaining committee.

“My biggest priority is the health care takeaway, where Evergreen wants the employees to be paying even more towards their coverage for themselves and their dependents,” Steere said. “For the staff members that aren’t nurses, the raises that are offered to them will be negated by the cost of health care.”

The nurses, as well as service and technical workers who belong to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare 1199NW, said after nine months of bargaining, they are stuck on two key issues: health care benefits and “successorship” language. Successorship would spell out what happens to their contract and seniority if another corporation completely takes over the public hospital. Workers are concerned that their wages and benefits could change for the worse, and they could get stuck at the bottom of seniority, forced to work different shifts, for example.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/monroe-health-care-workers-picket-for-new-contract/