Technology and service workers at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Washington, notified the hospital on Friday that they are planning an eight-day strike starting August 20.
Service Employee International Union Healthcare 1199NW represents approximately 1,100 employees across dozens of job categories at Kadlec, but not nurses.
The strike would involve workers at both Richland Hospital and the Kadlec standalone emergency room on Highway 395 in Kennewick.
Kadlec issued a statement late Friday evening saying the company is well prepared for a strike and that all facilities will remain open and all services will continue.
A contract has been signed with a temporary employment agency, which is standard procedure for hospitals during strikes, the company said.
Kadlec employees’ last three-year contract expired at the end of 2023 and the employees did not receive a pay rise this year.
Months of negotiations
The decision to strike came after a negotiating session on Thursday, which proved to be a turning point after eight months of negotiations, said Kenia Escobar, the union’s communications director.
The union is demanding that Kadlec workers be paid the same as workers at Swedish Health Services in Seattle, one of the most expensive locations in Washington state, Kadlec said.
Both Kadlec and Swedish are part of the Providence health care system.
Kadlec said the company has offered an average 16% pay increase to caregivers, with further increases over the next three years.
“Kadlec is disappointed that the union did not accept our competing offers, made unrealistic counter-offers and decided to strike,” the hospital said in a statement.
The union wants an average wage increase of more than 40%.
But a member of the negotiating team who spoke to the Tri-City Herald on behalf of SEIU disagreed with Kadlec’s numbers, saying the average wage increase the hospital proposed would not be 16%.
Some workers would only get a 34 cents an hour raise, up from just 60 cents above the minimum wage, said Thelma Hedrick, an X-ray and ultrasound technician at the independent emergency room in Kadlec.
“There are people who can’t pay their bills,” she said.
Kadlec’s union is unique, she said, because it involves both technicians and herself, as well as other workers, such as those in the hospitality and cleaning industries.
The proposed pay increases for technicians “are reasonable,” but the proposed wages for other workers are not increased enough, she said.
She said staff turnover is high as employees leave for other jobs in medical facilities that pay better, such as in Prosser and Sunnyside, and it is difficult to find new staff.
At Kadlec, executives are paid salaries comparable to those at Swedish Health Services and in some cases even higher, Hedrick said.
At another Providence hospital, St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, a contract has been reached with a higher salary than what Kadlec offered, she said.
SEIU has done cost-of-living comparisons, which show that the same groceries bought at Safeway in the Tri-Cities and Seattle are more expensive in the Tri-Cities. Other costs have also increased in the Tri-Cities, she said.
Kadlec said it respects the rights of workers to join a union and to declare a strike. However, strikes do not lead to the conclusion of contracts.
This must happen at the negotiating table and Kadlec looks forward to rejoining negotiations after the end of the strike, the report said.
SEIU Healthcare employees at Kadlec include:
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Certified nursing assistants who bathe and feed patients
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Cleaners and janitors
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Sterile processing technicians who assemble medical and surgical supplies
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Operating room technicians who support surgeons
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Nutrition and Dietetics Workers
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Technologists
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Respiratory Therapists
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Employees in dozens of other job categories
