Nurses, Swedish agree to deal

After months of contentious negotiations, nurses and other union staff have reached an agreement with Swedish Medical Center in Seattle on health and retirement benefits.

The Service Employees International Union 1199NW announced Tuesday that its members had voted overwhelmingly to approve the agreement. The union represents more than 4,200 nurses, technicians and service workers at Swedish, but only 1,211 cast ballots on the latest offer.

"Overall, it's good," said Sally O'Neill, a registered nurse and a member of the bargaining team. "It took us a long time to get to this."

The hospital said in autumn it was unlikely to continue bargaining, but a federal mediator called the parties back to negotiations in December, and the hospital presented another offer before the holidays.

The new agreement is a compromise.

For the union, Swedish will keep paying workers' health premiums under its basic health-care package, but employees will have to pay 5 percent of premiums for family members by 2008.

For Swedish, all new employees starting in 2007 will be enrolled in a 401(k)-style plan, rather than a guaranteed pension plan offered to current employees. But the hospital has pledged to provide a larger base contribution and match employees' contributions dollar for dollar.

Other elements of the agreement include $350,000 set aside each year for employee training, and a commitment from the hospital to explore a multihospital pension plan.

The agreement reached this week ends in 2008, and Ron Sperling, chief financial officer for Swedish, said he is looking forward to restoring relations with union leadership for the next negotiations. "It was a long and arduous process," he said of the past several months.

The latest bargaining on health care and pensions, which began several months ago, had been postponed from contract negotiations in 2004.

The hospital, known for a "gold standard" in benefits, wanted employees to begin sharing part of their health-care premiums and enroll new workers in a 401(k)-style plan.

The union argued that Swedish didn't need to scale back benefits because the hospital is highly profitable. Swedish countered that cuts were necessary to remain competitive.

The union staged rallies at Swedish facilities and voted twice to reject Swedish offers, including one in November that Swedish had called its "best and final."

Cara Solomon: 206-464-2024 or csolomon@seattletimes.com