Contract dispute between Memorial, nurses hits more hitches

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The ongoing contract dispute between Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and its nurses has hit new snags with administrators declaring a legal impasse and nurses filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

"Our goal is to help them understand how serious this is for us," said Chris Barton of Renton, a registered nurse and secretary-treasurer with Service Employees International Union 1199 NW. "We want to bargain in good faith and reach an agreement. I'm pretty shocked at the lengths they've gone to now say, 'We're done.' "

Memorial administrators say that the union's proposals continue to insist on mandatory union membership -- called a closed shop -- and that half don't want to join.

"The Memorial Board of Trustees strongly believes that our staff deserves the right to choose whether or not to join the union," the hospital said in a prepared statement.

The hospital also said an impartial federal mediator, who is aware of both sides, believed that continuing discussions would not be productive.

The hospital and the union, which represents about 640 nurses, began negotiating a new, three-year contract late last year. The main issues have been pay and pension plans.

But in June, the union received a letter from Memorial declaring a legal impasse, which means the hospital could impose the terms from its most recent contract proposal, Barton said.

To protest the hospital's actions, the union filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging unfair labor practices. It plans to add a harassment charge because some nurses say they're being subjected to a hostile work environment in retaliation for their union activism, Barton said.

The union is also organizing an informational picket in front of the hospital for Tuesday and is considering other courses of action, said Barton, who declined to elaborate. She estimates that the NLRB's investigation could take several weeks or longer.

The two parties remain at odds over wages and retirement benefits.

The hospital is proposing no wage increase this contract year, which ends in November, followed by a 1.5 percent and 2 percent wage increase, respectively, for the second and third years.

The union is proposing a 2 percent wage increase for each of the three years.

The hospital is also calling for starting 401(k) employer-match retirement plans beginning next year. The new plan would replace a defined-benefit retirement plan, which provides stable, predictable pension payments and applies to roughly half the nurses.

The change would shift the burden of saving for retirement to employees, who risk losing their investments in the volatile stock market.

To help with the transition, Memorial agreed to temporarily increase its employer match by 2.5 percent to nurses who are now on the defined-benefit plan, Barton said. She estimates the increase would cost the hospital an additional $500,000. The union, however, wants the help to span two years for a total of about $1 million, she said.

Memorial is a 222-bed hospital with annual revenues of $262 million. In recent months, administrators have said changes to the nurses' pay and benefits are necessitated by state budget cuts and decreases in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Nearly all of Memorial's 2,400 employees have already changed over to the new retirement plan.

* Erin Snelgrove can be reached at 509-577-7684 or esnelgrove@yakimaherald.com.