Union plans to picket at Evergreen open house: Contract stalemate continues as medical giant prepares to open new Redmond facility

Published 11:54 am Thursday, March 17, 2011

There will be plenty of action Saturday at Redmond’s newest medical facility — both inside and out.

Evergreen Hospital Medical Center will be giving the community a preview of the new Redmond facility, which will include primary, urgent and emergency care, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. before it opens for patients on Monday (March 21).

There will be children’s activities, adult blood pressure checks, CPR lessons, and Ask the Expert booths where you can ask brief questions of a health care provider. There will be self-guided tours and light refreshments.

At the same time, medical workers from the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Healthcare 1199 Northwest chapter, will be picketing outside of the new facility, which is located in Bella Bottega Shopping Center at 8980 161st Ave. NE.

The purpose of the picketing is to draw public attention to Evergreen’s “troubling” practices, according to Linnae Riesen, communications director for SEIU 1199NW.

Evergreen and SEIU have been negotiating for the last five months for a new three-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which expired at the end of October.

The two sides have had 15 negotiating sessions since last September and the last two have been with a mediator — approved by both sides — from the Public Employment Relations Commission.

“We are confident that we will reach an agreement at the table,” said Kay Taylor, Evergreen Vice President of Marketing.

There are many issues between Evergreen and SEIU, which represents 630 of Evergreen’s 3,300 employees, Taylor said.

“There are a number of issues including wages, benefits, money for training and education, mandatory union membership, outsourcing and paid time off,” she said.

Evergreen’s annual operating budget is about $750 million, nearly $15 million of which comes from the levy money paid to King County Public Hospital District No. 2 that includes Redmond and Kirkland. In 2009, Evergreen paid $235 million in employee salaries, wages, and benefits, or nearly 61 percent of the hospital’s total expenses for the year, according to a financial report.

The next bargaining session will be Wednesday, Taylor said. The union employees continue to work under the previous contract’s provisions until an agreement is made, Riesen said.

PICKETING PRESENCE

Two of SEIU’s biggest issues on the bargaining table are outsourcing and “providing affordable health care” to the union workers, Riesen said.

On Wednesday, union employees let their voice be heard.

Holding signs like “New ER, same uninsured families” and “Evergreen be a good neighbor,” nearly 50 Evergreen union workers and employees protested in front of the main hospital’s emergency room entrance in Kirkland.

Kirkland resident Nancy Jenkins, a certified nursing assistant at Evergreen’s Kirkland campus for 12 years, said her co-workers with families have to pay about $400 per month in health care. Add to that dental and eye care, and they’re looking at more than $600. Though she doesn’t support a family, Jenkins said it is “sad for those with families who can’t afford health care.”

Marysville resident Michelle Matthews, a Health Unit Coordinator (HUC) in the neonatal intensive care unit at Evergreen for 17 years, said the group would “really like to have a different kind of relationship with our employer than we’ve had in the past. We both have the same goals here of quality for our patients. We really feel that means as far as our employer, having quality employees and treating us like quality employees.”

The mother of three also said workers need affordable health care.

“It’s a crisis for us — we can’t afford to take care of our families,” said Matthews, whose children are insured through her husband’s employer because she can’t afford health care. “It’s very much a hardship and we’d like to see Evergreen join with us in making a commitment to provide quality health insurance at an affordable price for those of us who are doing everything we can every day to provide quality health care to the public.”

Redmond resident Debbie Pronk, a registered nurse at Evergreen for 15 years, commended Evergreen for being a great employer. However, “I’m so disappointed that they haven’t been able to work closely with partners to negotiate a contract,” said Pronk, who previously served on the hospital’s Community Advisory Board.

She protested with her peers on Wednesday to show them support.

“They’ve been my co-workers for many years, our families get health care here,” said Pronk. “I’m concerned about my co-workers and the outsourcing Evergreen is doing. This is the last resort.”

AGREE TO DISAGREE

SEIU took out a full-page in last week’s edition of the Reporter, criticizing the fact that Evergreen uses an outside contractor for its commercial cleaning services — or what SEIU calls environmental services. The ad, which ran in the Redmond, Kirkland, Bothell and Sammamish Reporter newspapers, said by outsourcing, Evergreen is sacrificing “infection control” at the new Redmond facility.

“They are a neighbor and leader in the community,” Riesen said. “We are asking them to be a good neighbor, by protecting quality care and quality jobs.”

However, Evergreen officials said this outsourcing of commercial cleaning services is nothing new for its off-site campuses.

In fact, it’s been a 20-year practice, Taylor said adding that Eastside Commercial Building Maintenance is the contractor for its Duvall, Sammamish, Woodinville and now Redmond sites.

The new Redmond facility will require approximately 5 to 8 employees to meet the cleaning standards, said Taylor.

While SEIU will lose those jobs to outsourcing, it will gain more jobs in other fields at Redmond.

Evergreen will be adding 62 new full-time positions at the Redmond facility, including 32 SEIU positions in other services besides commercial cleaning, Taylor said.

The main reason Evergreen contracts out its commercial cleaning services is efficiency, according to Jeff Friedman, Evergreen vice president of Human Resources.

The outside contractor provides supervision and proper staffing support if one facility is short on staff at one location, then it can pull an employee from another facility to make sure the job gets done, Friedman said.

“The vendor also provides the necessary equipment and therefore we do not need to purchase equipment, maintain it or create space for storage,” Taylor said.

However, SEIU feels that its environmental services workers would be more efficient and effective.

People who work in SEIU’s environmental services are “the front lines of infection control,” Riesen said. “We want to make sure the job is done right.”

Riesen said for-profit contractors often cut corners in order to make more money, ultimately posing more health threats to the medical facility’s patients.

“We’ve seen it happen at other hospitals. Their mission is not to provide quality services, but to make money,” Riesen said. “They often rush people through the cleaning process, causing very serious infection in hospitals.”

Riesen added that Swedish Medical Center, which also uses SEIU workers, recently put a ban on outsourcing. SEIU would like to see a similar ban by Evergreen, Riesen said.

Taylor said Eastside Commercial Building Maintenance has worked for Evergreen for more than a year and “we’re confident in their capacity to address all cleaning issues, including infection control.”

SEIU disagrees with Evergreen’s outsourcing and wants affordable health care, two pillars for Saturday’s picketing.

Bellevue resident Adam Dibba, Health Unit Coordinator (HUC) at Evergreen for 11 years in the surgical unit, said she and her husband can’t afford to put their three children on her health insurance.

“It’s sad that I work for health care and I can’t put my kids on their health insurance,” she said. “I think they should just meet us somewhere. We are willing to negotiate, but we need affordable health care insurance because we are health care workers.