PAGE 4 | December 17, 2021 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Strike at Springfield hospital
By Don McIntosh
Over 300 hospital support work-
ers held a five-day strike Dec. 6
to 11 at McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital in Springfield, Oregon,
in part to protest a decision to
outsource laundry, food service,
and housekeeping. About 70
union members in those depart-
ments were told they’d have to
re-apply for their jobs, and offi-
cially became employees of a
contractor, Texas-based HHS,
on Dec. 5. They continue to
make the same wages and re-
main members of Service Em-
ployees International Union
(SEIU) Local 49, but will have
to negotiate a separate contract
with HHS. And their benefits
are being slashed.
Dietary clerk Kristi Green,
one of the outsourced workers,
has worked at the hospital 17
years. She said paid time off of-
fered by HHS is a fraction of
what she had before, and the
new health insurance doesn’t in-
clude any local providers.
Meanwhile, in contract bar-
gaining, Local 49 and McKen-
zie-Willamette are far apart on
wages. The hospital wants pay
to be based on “market” rates
that it gleaned from the web
sites Glassdoor.com and In-
deed.com. It’s also proposing
that workers pay 30% of the pre-
mium for health insurance, up
from 7% currently.
M c K e n z i e - Wi l l a m e t t e ,
owned by Tennessee-based cor-
poration Quorum Health Corp.,
is one of only two for-profit hos-
pitals in Oregon.