WENATCHEE — Numerous people driving by Central Washington Hospital honked their horns in support of picketing healthcare workers gathered at the entrance to the hospital’s parking lot earlier this week.
Hospital health care workers’ contract with Confluence Health expired in June 2017. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 21 (UFCW) has been helping employees negotiate since then.
“We’ve been waiting for months to confirm a negotiation date with Confluence Health,” UFCW Membership Action Director Kendra Valdez said. “We’ve reached out for dates and haven’t heard anything. There is a potential date in August, where we may be back to the bargaining table.” That could be Aug. 3, according to Valdez.
“We are hopeful that (Confluence) will hear the community and the workers’ need for staffing and retention, and that they will address that in their proposals,” Valdez said.
Workers at the hospital assembled with members from various unions in the hospital parking lot on Wednesday to keep the public informed about the ongoing negotiations. Unions in attendance included the Washington State Nurses Association, UFCW 21, and the Washington State Labor Council. There were over 250 workers, community members and union members who participated, according to Valdez.
“We have presented an offer for an annual increase of 3.05 percent, as well as incentive potential up to 2.5 percent, but the union is demanding more,” Confluence Health Spokesperson Andrew Canning said in an email. “At this time, we are in the process of scheduling an additional bargaining session to discuss and clarify our positions on remaining items.”
Daniel Lopez, a medical lab technician at Central Washington Hospital, was one of the picketers at the gathering on Wednesday.
“It’s amazing how, between our first information picket to this, we have a big turnout with so many people here,” Lopez said. “… It’s important, too, that we get the employee retention, and everybody around here is hoping for that.”
Gretchen Stark, a Central Washington Hospital lab assistant, was also one of the event’s participants.
“They expect above standard service from us, but they’re giving us less than standard compensation,” Stark said of Confluence Health. “That is not going to achieve the goal they’re looking for, and we are the people that help them get there… We’ve got people all over the hospital that are directly impacting patient care and we deserve better.”
This spring, Canning, the Confluence spokesman, said in an email that the hospital was negotiating in good faith to reach an agreement with the union “that is fair, market-based, and attractive to our union staff, now and into the future.”
