SEIU Mulls Strike Vote If Contract Talks Fail
 More than 70 members from the local SEIU and associated chapters rallied across the street from North Adams Regional Hospital on Tuesday. |
But if an agreement can be reached by Monday, a contract ratification vote will be held at the membership meeting instead of the strike vote, said union officials.
North Adams Regional Hospital and the local chapter of 1199SEIU have been unable to resolve issues over overtime, scheduling and benefits, according to officials from the Service Employee International Union. More than 70 union members from the hospital and affiliated chapters in Boston, Springfield and Pittsfield rallied in the playground across the street from NARH during a break in negotiations.
"Our goal is to get things resolved today," said Michael Fadel, executive vice president of 1199SEIU. Fadel said the union's negotiating committee was willing to work into the night with the NBH team on a new two-year contract "if it's productive."
Workers, however, were preparing for the possibility of a strike vote and slapping on stickers that said "6 Days" — the number of days before the union membership meets on Monday.
"It's imperative that you be there ...," local chapter President Michael O'Brien told purple-clad union members clustered below the a kids' playhouse, from which union leaders rallied their forces. "At the meeting we will either be ratifying a contract or we're going to be taking a vote for a strike — we'll be at least authorizing the bargaining committee to tender a strike notice to the hospital if and when we get to that point."
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The once cordial relationship with the union came to an end earlier this year after SEIU and the Massachusetts Nurses Association local refused to reopen contracts fearing a permanent loss of hard-won benefits. SEIU says it offered concessions but hospital officials responded that it wasn't enough.
"This is not the normal sort of negotiations where we've just kind of been at odds and trying to work our way through to a resolution," said Fadel. "The administration is trying to turn the tables on what's been a working and workable relationship."
Union members claim that among the hospital's demands are the elimination of maternity leaves, the ability to move positions between departments and change job schedules according to need. Hospital officials said they would not discussed negotiations in the press, other than to say the union had entered talks assuming there would be demands.
Only yards away, union members were chanting "They say cutback, we fight back" as some pounded on plastic tubs turned impromptu drums. Vehicles driving by honked horns as members waved signs, including one that showed hospital administrators as turkeys.
Fadel said the point of the rally was to let the community know what was happening — that highly paid "consultants" with no stake in the community were threatening the jobs of local residents who'd worked at the hospital for decades.
"I've never seen it this bad," said one union member who's worked at the hospital for 35 years.The union's proposed a contract within the hospital's purported 2 percent fiduciary goal, said Fadel. "We know there's a reality here that has to be addressed ... we're willing to be flexible in a number of ways."
But as the rally died down and workers made their way back up the hill to the hospital to resume talks, it didn't appear that a resolution was close at hand — or that the mention of a strike would rattle NBH negotiators.
"I've been to every negotiating meeting. I don't like what I'm hearing," said Joanna Therrien, who was sporting a "6" sticker. She's worked at the hospital for more than three decades and is concerned that if the hospital's demands are met, "we might as well not have a contract."
