Group Health and labor not talking

By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter

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If bargaining resumed, union members could still legally walk out on schedule at 7 a.m. Monday if a settlement hadn't been be reached.

"The mediation process is continuing. We don't foreclose any possibilities," said Andy Hall, one of two mediators with the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service assigned to the Group Health talks.

An estimated 1,700 nurses, social workers, medical assistants, custodians and other workers plan to stay off work until midnight Aug. 27 at virtually all Group Health clinics and facilities in Western Washington. The workers, who belong to the Service Employees International Union District 1199NW, voted down a contract offer last month that would have required them to pay monthly health premiums for the first time.

Group Health is girding for what could be its first Seattle labor disruption in nearly a decade by lining up possible replacement workers. The co-op has contracted with U.S. Nursing Corp. of Denver, which places 95 percent of temporary health-care workers during strikes in the country, to fill an undisclosed number of positions.

U.S. Nursing is offering $40 an hour for nurses and $30 an hour for operating-room technicians as well as full payment for housing and travel expenses for the week. Replacement workers will receive $750 if the strike is called off after they arrive in Seattle. According to Group Health, its nurses earn an average of $33 a hour before overtime, shift premiums and other extra pay.

Carter Wright, a spokesman for the union, called Group Health's preparations "extremely offensive" and noted that the co-op is spending money for replacement workers that could better be spent on its own employees.

Strike plans An estimated 1,700 Western Washington members of the Service Employees International Union District 1199NW are scheduled to walk off the job at Group Health Cooperative for five days starting Monday at 7 a.m. Federal mediators may still call the two sides back to negotiations before the strike deadline, although they had not done so as of yesterday.

Despite their standoff, both the union and Group Health say they are prepared to continue negotiating.

Laura Query, a Group Health spokeswoman, declined to discuss strike-contingency plans.

Group Health nurses in the Seattle area walked out over a contract dispute for one day in 1995 and for one day in Spokane last year. They also went on strike in Seattle for 38 days in 1989.

Group Health plans to keep its three dozen Western Washington medical and urgent-care centers, specialty clinics and the Group Health Central Hospital on Capitol Hill open during a strike by relying on staff physicians, temporary workers and other employees. The union has said it will not strike Group Health facilities in Eastern Washington or the co-op's Eastside Hospital in Redmond, saying it wants to minimize disruption for patients.

In a letter sent to employees yesterday, outgoing Group Health President and Chief Executive Cheryl Scott defended the company's proposal to start charging union workers monthly premiums for health insurance, something the co-op's nonunion workers already pay.

Scott said that, with health-care costs continuing to rise, Group Health can't impose large rate increases on customers without asking all of its employees to pay a share.

According to a 2003 national survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a benefits consulting firm, less than 15 percent of U.S. employers with 500 or more workers offer zero-premium health coverage, as Group Health does.

The co-op's last contract offer called for union workers to pay 1 percent of their annual base pay in health premiums for individual coverage and up to 3 percent for family coverage. It also would have increased co-pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs from $5 to $15.

Deanne Zink, a Group Health medical assistant who works at the co-op's Northgate clinic, said she can't afford any premiums on her pay of $12.87 an hour. Zink, a single mother of two, says she already pays $50 a month for dental coverage. Health premiums alone would cost her an additional $36 a month, a sum Zink says is beyond her budget.

"Every nickel that comes out of my paycheck hurts me," said Zink, 42. Zink acknowledges that Group Health's benefits are generous. But what the company now wants her to pay "seems like a drastic jump from zero."

Zink said she and her co-workers enjoy their jobs at Group Health but are prepared to strike nonetheless.

"Once we start paying these premiums, they are going to shoot up," said Zink, who is looking for a second job. "In five years, we're going to be very sorry that we accepted this contract."

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

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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