Hospital Union Claims Victory in Johns Hopkins Contract Fight

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Labor



1199SEIU President George Gresham (right) protests low wages with fellow union members in a three-day picket line outside Johns Hopkins Hospital in April. (Jim McNeill/1199SEIU)

BY BRUCE VAIL July 11, 2014

BALTIMORE—A bruising four-month fight between healthcare workers’ union 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and Johns Hopkins Hospital is coming to an end: Members voted on Thursday and Friday to ratify a new agreement covering about 2,000 medical center employees.

The battle has been unusually intense compared with negotiations in the past, featuring a three-day strike in April and a voracious media campaign shaming the wealthy hospital for abandoning its lowest-paid workers. And though the new contract falls short of initial demands that would have more widely boosted wages among staff, local 1199SEIU leaders still view its ratification as a welcome victory after months of struggle.

“It was a tough negotiation. They are hard bargainers,” John Reid, Executive Vice President for 1199SEIU’s Maryland/District of Columbia region, tells In These Times about Hopkins representatives. “They act as if they have no respect for their own workforce.”

The contract, says 1199SEIU spokesperson Jim McNeill, calls for across-the-board wage increases of 2 percent a year in each of the first three years, followed by a 2.75 percent increase in 2017. In addition, it calls for a one-half percent salary bonus in the first year.

FULL story at link.

[TexasTowelie]

1. Good for them.

The board at Parkland Hospital diverted part of the pay raises for doctors so that all hospital employees will earn at least $10.50/hour. I hope that this trend continues for the people on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. I recall that when I interviewed for my first job in 1987 that the chief actuary told me that everyone in an organization deserves respect and that all human beings have worth--surprising words since he was very conservative overall.