Group Health union to give strike notice

By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter

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But the Service Employees International Union District 1199NW indicated that the walkout might not last long.

"It doesn't have to be an open-ended strike," said Carter Wright, a union spokesman.

The union's action comes six days after contracts expired for 1,000 nurses and social workers in Western Washington who make up half of the bargaining units. Negotiations had stalled over Group Health's plans to start charging union workers monthly health-insurance premiums for the first time.

Most of the remaining 1,000 licensed practical nurses, custodians and medical assistants have been working under an expired contract since September 2003. Those union members work in both Eastern and Western Washington.

Nurses at Group Health in Seattle staged a one-day strike in March 1995 over contract disputes, and a 38-day walkout in 1989. Nurses in Spokane struck for one day last year.

Federal labor laws require health-care workers to give 10 days' notice before taking labor action. That means the earliest Group Health workers could walk off the job is Aug. 22.

Scott Armstrong, Group Health's chief operating officer, said in an interview Tuesday that the co-op was prepared to continue operating in the event of a strike.

Among the contingency plans, should a strike drag on, is to shut down Group Health Eastside Hospital in Redmond, which has an average of 50 in-patients, and transfer them to other area hospitals. Group Health's two-dozen medical clinics throughout the state would continue operating with its staff physicians, who don't belong to a union, and with nurses brought in from temporary agencies, Armstrong said.

Group Health and the Services Employees union have clashed over a proposal to charge employees 1 percent to 3 percent of their base pay in annual health premiums, depending on family size. The union workers now have a $5 co-pay for each prescription and doctor's visit. Most of Group Health's nonunion workers, including staff physicians, pay $35 to $105 per month in premiums.

"Our medical benefit is virtually free," Armstrong said. "It's unheard of in this market."
 
Union negotiators argue that reducing health benefits will make it more difficult to attract and retain workers, especially registered nurses.

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com