NEWS
B Y M AT T H E W D E N I S
TO JOIN OR NOT TO JOIN,
THAT IS THE UNION QUESTION
Urgent Care employees await a union decision
F
ormed in 2008, Eugene Urgent Care has grown from one clinic near the University
of Oregon to nine offices across Lane County. In the wake of this fast rise, a conflict
arose about whether to unionize.
On Aug. 19, the workers at Lane County Urgent Care clinics voted to unionize
for collective bargaining power in a 72-70 count. The National Labor Relations
Board must certify this referendum.
After concluding hearings last month, management and staff wait for the NLRB’s
decision regarding 11 contested votes.
Lawyers for both sides presented
their cases as to the legitimacy of each
‘We tried for years to change
contested vote based upon such things as
and be heard, but management
hours worked, position in the company
has never offered consistent
or length of employment — arguing
whether these employees qualify to vote
raisesIt was time to step up
for unionization.
because I believe in what we do
Either way, advocates on both sides say
at Urgent Care.’
an intimate work culture garnered over
the past nine years is being challenged.
— M ichael c ockerline , paraMedic
“This isn’t like working for a large,
corporate hospital. It is a small, tight-knit
operation,” long-time Urgent Care paramedic Kim Wick says. “I’ve worked beside these
doctors and owners for years. We consider each other family here.”
Staffers say this familiarity has made them reluctant to demand improvements to their
compensation structure, but for long-time employees, this past year was the time to finally
organize.
“We tried for years to change and be heard, but management has never offered consistent
raises,” paramedic Michael Cockerline says. “It was time to step up because I believe in
what we do at Urgent Care.”
On July 1, Urgent Care management faced its first formal challenge when union
supporters submitted a petition to certify SEIU Local 49 as their exclusive bargaining
agent.
Since then, each side has accused the other of going too far. Union opposition say they
are put off by the aggression of union organizers’ tactics, interrupting business hours and
demanding paperwork from office workers. And union advocates claim that Eugene Urgent
Care parent company ICCO required advisory meetings with union buster lawyers after
they filed the petition to certify.
“They brought in these labor attorneys from Portland to tell us why employees
shouldn’t join the union,” Wick says. “They bragged how they’d never not been successful
in breaking up a union.”
For ICCO, though, these mandatory meetings provided a forum to tell their side of the
story.
“ICCO does not believe a union is in the best interest of our employees, our patients
or our company,” CEO Bill Clendenen tells Eugene Weekly. “I have heard from many
employees that our company is a great place to work, and I was hired to come in and make
it an even better place to work and to receive exceptional patient care.”
Despite a close bond between the doctors who own Urgent Care and their staff,
employees say ICCO has been reluctant to grant raises, provide extended benefits and
apply a transparent pay scale.
“We have had representatives approach the board many times and they have refused to
act,” Cockerline says.
Clendenen contends that ICCO has provided systematic employee wage increases.
“In fact,” he says, “we have provided employee wage increases in 2016 and 2017 that,
for the significant majority of employees, were above the increase in cost of living as
measured by Consumer Price Index.”
Urgent Care union supporters oppose what they view as too much wage discrepancy in
overall pay.
“You hear about trainees earning more than their trainers,” Wick says. “That doesn’t
make a lot of sense. If we structure pay in a more equitable way instead, it should increase
the longevity of employment.”
She says there is no consistent measuring stick or evaluation for determining initial
employee pay and raises. Pay instead depends on a number of random components.
“Which person hires you, who trains who, who your boss is, the location of the clinic
where you work, all of these things factor into how much you’re paid,” she says.
Union opponents actually agree with this argument, but differ in their view of its effect.
“People deserve to be paid by how well they work, and raises are a way to do that,”
Urgent Care staffer Vanessa McBride says. “Not everyone needs to be equal in pay if
everyone receives equal treatment.”
Both sides of the union debate wait in limbo for the NLRB ruling, which could take
anywhere from a week to two years to come down. ■
eugeneweekly.com • November 9, 2017
9