Caseloads, wages at issue for Providence Hospice workers

Published 1:30 am Saturday, November 12, 2016

EVERETT — Providence Hospice and Homecare of Snohomish County employees are negotiating their first contract following a vote to join a union, SEIU Healthcare 1199 Northwest.

The two sides have met for five bargaining sessions since Sept. 5, according to Mary Beth Walker, a spokeswoman for Providence Senior and Community Services, which oversees the hospice and homecare service.

Union member Melonie Miller is a registered nurse who works at the in-patient hospice center at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. She previously worked as a home health nurse for the hospice organization.

“I continue to work at Providence because I care about the vulnerable people in our community,” she said. Miller is concerned about staff turnover rates. “We’re not retaining our experienced nurses,” she said.

Julie Popper, a spokeswoman for the union, said that staffing and caseloads, or the number of patients whose care staff are overseeing, also are at issue in the talks. “What’s happening is they have so many patients they’re caring for,” Popper said.

Providence has proposed having mandatory times when staff are on call for 24 hours for multiple days because there isn’t enough staff, she said. Nurses would have to cut short their home visit times for hospital patients, she said. “Nurses are saying that is not how we should be caring for these type of patients.”

Walker said that because it’s early in the negotiations process “we’re discussing everything.”

Hospice staff voted to join the union April 6. It represents 220 employees.

Research by the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations found that about half of bargaining units are still without a contract one year after the union has been certified, she said.

As with many contracts, wages also are an issue. Miller said their wages are lower than those offered at competing organizations.

Walker said Providence was disappointed by recent actions taken by union members at the hospice center’s administrative building on Wetmore Avenue. Walker described their actions as informational picketing.

While the action had no effect on patient care, “We are disappointed that the union has chosen this option,” Walker said. “We would prefer to get back to the bargaining table.”

Popper said no informational picketing took place. Union members decided to gather outside the building, she said.

Additional bargaining sessions are scheduled Nov. 17 and Dec. 8.

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.