Publication Date: Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Our Town: Stanford's labor pains
Our Town: Stanford's labor pains
(December 07, 2005) by Don Kazak
A dozen or so union leaders and elected officials (none from Palo Alto) stood next to a big purple RV last Thursday afternoon near the main entrance to Stanford Hospital. The bus belongs to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
They were gathered to announce that SIEU's workers at Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's hospitals would go on strike at 5 a.m. Dec. 12.
They huddled under the bus's foldout awning, trying to stay dry. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and rain poured down on assembled journalists.
The SEIU has separate labor contracts with the university and the hospitals, which are separate legal corporations. The union represents 1,400 hospital workers and 1,300 university workers. These are the blue-collar workers who keep things running, such as food and service workers, including 300 nursing assistants at the hospitals.
The hospital workers voted Nov. 22 to authorize SEIU leaders to call a strike, which they announced at the rain-drenched press conference. They are required to give 10 days notice.
In a separate action, SEIU's university workers voted last week to authorize a strike. That could happen any time because university employees don't need to give notice.
SEIU's disputes with the university and the hospitals have different histories, but may be dovetailing.
SIEU's labor agreement with the hospitals expired Nov. 4. It was extended to Nov. 13 for additional negotiations, but has now lapsed. The union is asking for 29 percent pay raises over three years, while the hospital's "last, best and final" offer is 12 percent.
The union asked to resume negotiations and the hospitals refused unless the union indicated it was ready to move a bit. The refusal prompted SEIU to file an unfair labor practice charge against the hospitals with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the hospitals are violating federal labor law by refusing to negotiate.
In contrast, SEIU's agreement with the university has not expired. But when the current contract was signed, both sides agreed to put a re-opener into the contract over pension issues. Negotiations were reopened but were moving so slowly from the union's perspective that it called the strike-authorization vote last week.
So for those who might be a bit confused, here's the score: one union, two contracts with two different legal entities, two strike-authorization votes for entirely different reasons and one strike set for Dec. 12.
A different SEIU local went on strike for two months recently against California Pacific Medical Center's three hospitals in San Francisco. That strike was settled Nov. 12 when SEIU agreed to a four-year contract with 16 percent pay raises -- the same 4 percent a year that Stanford and Packard hospitals say is their final offer.
Stanford and Packard hospitals have a combined 688 in-patient beds. That includes intensive-care beds, beds for heart patients and, at Packard, 40 neonatel intensive care beds for premature-born babies. Packard is a regional hospital, as is Stanford for heart and transplant patients.
Both hospitals have been running chock-full of patients.
Unless a federal mediator heads off the Dec. 12 strike -- federal mediators are automatically assigned when notice of a strike is given -- the hospitals could have difficulty in functioning.
A contingency plan for a strike is in place, hospital spokeswoman Sarah Staley said, but declined to specify how the hospitals would get by without 1,400 workers.
A separate union representing nurses at the hospitals held a 50-day strike in the summer of 2000.
The hospitals weathered that strike by bringing in contract nurses from around the country. That kept things running, but the 50-day nurses' strike cost the two hospitals $30 million for the contract nurses.
Replacing the SEIU workers during a strike might not be as easy.
While the two labor disputes are separate, the hospital and university workers are supporting each other.
About 200 hospital workers held a lively rally at Stanford Hospital Nov. 2. They wore purple SEIU T-shirts, carried placards and chanted as they marched around the hospital and then to Palm Drive, to the foot of the Oval.
In the distance, another 200 university workers also wore purple SEIU T-shirts, carried placards and chanted as they marched toward the hospital workers. It may have been a sign of things to come.
Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.
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