Group Health patients can get medical care this week, despite a five-day strike that continues though Friday by 1,700 nurses and other members of the Service Employees International Union.
“I didn’t have to wait,” Jane Weaver, a Group Health patient from Granite Falls, said as she left Everett Medical Center on Monday.
Reg Clarke of Monroe said he didn’t consider rescheduling his physical at Lynnwood Medical Center on the strike’s first day.
“Things were a little slower than normal, but they were quite well done,” said Clarke, who recognized the woman who checked him in as a nursing administrator.
As transportation director for the Edmonds School District, he noted that he, too, is sometimes involved in negotiations with Service Employees International Union members.
“There did not seem to be uptightness,” Clarke said of conditions inside the Lynnwood center. “It was folks learning what they need to do because they don’t do it every day.”
Like nearly everything else involved in the strike, however, there were disagreements between union and Group Health officials on how well things were going without the striking union members.
Group Health “has been trying to portray business as usual,” said Diane Sosne, president of SEIU local 1199. “You can’t have 1,700 people go on strike and think it’s going to run as good” as when all employees are there.
Last weekend, officials said about two-thirds of employees filling in for striking workers were shifted from management or other areas of Group Health, such as in Eastern Washington and Idaho.
However, they declined to say how many temporary replacement workers have come from outside the organization.
Group Health’s Seattle baby delivery unit is one service temporarily closed by the strike, spokeswoman Laura Query said. The co-op’s physicians are delivering babies at Northwest Hospital in Seattle. It only affects women who were being treated at the Seattle family beginnings unit, she said.
In Snohomish County, Group Health clients can deliver babies at Providence Everett Medical Center, a practice unchanged by the strike, or go to Northwest Hospital.
Pam Selnes, administrator at Group Health’s Everett medical center, said some patients canceled appointments on the first day of the strike, but not unusually more than any other work day. Waits to get care weren’t longer than usual, she said.
Selnes said she spent time Monday answering questions from patients, who wanted to confirm their doctors were working, and from fill-in employees. She also talked with staffers picketing outside the building at 2930 Maple St.
“The message was we understood they have a right to strike,” Selnes said. “We’ve been talking about this ever since the strike notice. We have what I feel are fairly open conversations with my staff.”
Debbie Judd and Bonnie Gibson, two longtime Group Health nurses, were among the union members picketing the medical clinic Monday.
It was the fourth time Judd had walked the picket line – the third strike she’s been involved with during her 25 years at Group Health. She and other strikers said they liked working for the health care cooperative, but felt the strike, triggered by disagreements over health care costs, was necessary.
Gipson recalled the 39-day strike against Group Health in 1989. “I thought this was behind us,” she said as she held an SEIU picket sign in her hand.
With the shortages in nursing and health care professions, “I thought we would be able to come up with a settlement,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s happening again.”
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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