BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center and its local clinics are preparing for a strike by many of its unionized workers next week.
Workers including CNAs, housekeeping, trauma registrars, phlebotomists, imaging technicians and other hospital staff will be on picket lines for five days beginning on Monday, May 12.
Doctors who just voted to unionize last year also plan to walk off the job.
Bargaining representatives for the unions representing the workers say wages, understaffing and limited time with patients are their critical concerns. They say contract negotiations have gone on for eight months will little progress.
“Our clinicians have repeatedly raised concerns about patient safety and working conditions for months, but PeaceHealth continues to make these decisions and implement changes without clinician input,” Joe Crane, UAPD Washington State Organizing Coordinator, said. “After multiple failed attempts to resolve these issues through negotiations, the decision to strike was made.”
PeaceHealth says in a statement that they’ve secured temporary replacement workers, and the community can count on continued safe, quality care during the strike.
They say they’re disappointed in the unions’ decision to strike but support workers’ right to do so, and they look forward to resuming contract negotiations following the work stoppage.
PeaceHealth stresses that nurses belong to a separate union and will not be part of this strike.
