‘We gained … a voice’: St. Charles Bend med techs OK first union contract
(Update: Adding video, comments from workers)
Union claims big advances; hospital claims they missed out on raises, are getting same salaries as others
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Medical techs, technologists and therapists at St. Charles Bend voted Wednesday to ratify their first union contract, a 3-year pact that the union says raises pay an average 25% and marks "a new stage of labor peace and partnership with the hospital."
But St. Charles issued a statement of its own that painted a very different picture of the contract, saying the workers missed out on raises they would have gotten since unionizing in late 2019 and are not getting larger raises or higher salaries than the non-union workers in similar positions at their other three hospitals are getting.
But union members say they don't believe the raises they'll get would have ever happened otherwise.
"We wouldn't have this contract today if we hadn't went on strike. We had no future bargaining dates, they were not agreeing to anything, they were trying to 'union bust' us," Beatrice Redding-Walczyk, a radiation therapist at the St. Charles Cancer Center, said Thursday.
"They were trying to make this so miserable and drag it out so that we would give up or that a coup would form and that OFNHP would get voted out. That was their goal. They did it in 2011. We went on strike for a purpose, and what we got out of that was a contract."
New tech workers will not be required to join the union to qualify under the contract terms.
Deedee Schumacher, an ultrasound technologist, said the dispute brought people together.
"We gained representation, unity and a voice in our workplace," she said.
Here's the full news release from the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which did not providing a breakdown of the ratification vote, and the release from St. Charles.
Techs at St. Charles Ratify Union Contract Ensuring Labor Peace and 25% Raises
After a multi-year campaign and a nine-day strike at St. Charles Medical Center, the unionized employees ratify their first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) ensuring substantial wages and pay equality.
BEND, Ore.—The medical techs, technologists, and therapists at St. Charles Medical Center have now ratified their first union contract, marking a new stage of labor peace and partnership with the hospital.
These employees first voted to unionize in 2019 and began the long process of bargaining their first contract. After hitting roadblocks and inequitable proposals from St. Charles management, the workers voted by 94% to strike.
This began an historic nine-day strike, which brought in mass support across Oregon from political leaders, unions, faith and community organizations.
After months of stalling, this strike brought St. Charles back to the table with workable proposals, and the strike gave way to intensive bargaining sessions where a final agreement was reached.
“This contract proves, once again, that when you come together as a union, you can accomplish what isn’t possible alone,” says Randi Weingarten, the president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers, of which OFNHP is an affiliate.
“I am so proud of the newest members of the OFNHP and AFT family who organized for years and fought fiercely at the bargaining table and on the picket line to win a fair first contract. This historic agreement delivers on their faith with immediate boosts to pay and conditions and a permanent and enduring voice on the job.”
“We have won a groundbreaking new contract, which raises our wages an average of 25% and ensures that we have a strong voice at work.” says Frank Dewolf, a technologist in the Cardiac Cath Lab.
The sizable increases are the result of a new wage system that will repair the long-standing pay disparities in the hospital, correcting things like gender and tenure pay disparities.
Alongside pay equity, workers will now have a comprehensive ladder for wage increases based on years of experience and tenure.
The contract also ensures that workers will have the ability to challenge contract violations through a grievance procedure and binding arbitration and will have a structured voice on the job through labor partnership committees that will work to collaboratively address concerns as they come up.
“We are excited to have the techs at St. Charles join the OFNHP family so we can work together to move care forward in Oregon,” says Jodi Barschow, the local president of OFNHP. “We have won an amazing contract because we worked together and pushed the employer to do the right thing.”
This labor victory has resonated across the country, as the techs in St. Charles set an example to health care workers around the country. They have demonstrated what is necessary to ensure equitable workplace conditions and adequate patient care for the community they live in and serve.
This contract will be in effect for the next three years, at which time it will reopen for negotiations. These workers are joining their health care colleagues as members of OFNHP, which will be entering contract negotiations at Kaiser Permanente and PeaceHealth next month.
St. Charles news release:
St. Charles Bend technical caregivers ratify first-time contract
The approximately 150 technical caregivers at St. Charles Bend who are represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals voted yesterday in favor of ratifying their first-time contract.
"We are so pleased the Bend techs agreed with the compensation philosophy St. Charles has in place for all of its non-contracted caregivers," said Hillary Forrest, director of Human Resources for St. Charles and a member of the bargaining team.
The contract provides general wage increases and market adjustments for the first year that will bring the technical caregivers to the same wage level as St. Charles techs at other campuses. The wage package brings the technical caregivers up to the level of wages they would have already received if they had not voted to unionize in September 2019. The average increase is about 11%, which is consistent with increases received from 2019 through the first quarter of 2021 for non-contracted technical caregivers. Most OFNHP members did not receive wage increases during the bargaining process.
“Our bargaining philosophy has been to ensure that all St. Charles caregivers are treated fairly – regardless of if they are unionized,” Forrest said. “We did not provide retroactive pay for the technical caregivers and we achieved our goal of ensuring this group of caregivers is compensated with the same processes and general increases as caregivers who are not part of a union."
During bargaining, the Bend techs missed out on a potential of four wage and market increases that others have received since the fall of 2019. After the first year, the contract follows the same wage methodology St. Charles already uses for non-contracted caregivers.
In addition, the St. Charles team held firm throughout negotiations in its belief that all St. Charles caregivers should have a choice as to whether they join a union. The ratified contract is considered an “open shop” and allows current and future St. Charles Bend technical caregivers to choose whether they join the union and pay dues.
Negotiations on the contract have been taking place since January 2020. St. Charles leaders and union representatives met more than 30 times to bargain the contract – all while dealing with a global pandemic and community-wide COVID-19 vaccination roll-out. The technical caregivers participated in a work stoppage that started March 4 even though the team had not yet had its first session with the federal mediator, which was already scheduled for March 10.
“The wage proposal that was ratified by yesterday’s vote is the same proposal St. Charles put on the bargaining table before the technical caregivers went out on strike,” Forrest said. “As we have said multiple times, no one wins in a strike situation. We are pleased that OFNHP was willing to return to work so we could negotiate the last items in the contract to ensure no future disruptions to patient care.”
Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Goodman later provided this further comment:
"We would like to understand how the union is coming to the 25% increase, too, because that is not what is in the contract.
"Individual caregivers are receiving wage increases that range from 0% to 25%. Only one person is getting a 25% increase. The average increase for the group is 11%, which is consistent with increases received from 2019 through the first quarter of 2021 for non-contracted technical caregivers.
"The wage package brings the technical caregivers up to the level of wages they would have already received if they had not voted to unionize in September 2019. Most OFNHP members did not receive wage increases during the bargaining process.
"As part of our compensation philosophy, we regularly review the market competitiveness of our wages and determined an adjustment needed to be made for certified surgical techs in September 2020. We proposed, and the union accepted, a pay increase of $15.55 an hour for this group, even though we were in the process of bargaining a first-time contract. St. Charles brought forward this proposal, which far exceeded the union’s requests, in the best interest of our patients and our caregivers because we were having a hard time filling and retaining certified surgical techs. Those increases went into effect Sept. 6 and are not included in the average 11% increases for the final, ratified contract.
"The wage ranges for each job come from third-party market surveys of like-sized health systems in the Pacific Northwest," Goodman concluded.
