SEATTLE – Group Health nurses and other medical workers will announce plans today to go on strike.
Federal law requires health care workers to give employers 10 days notice before striking. The strike will involve nurses, medical assistants, social workers, therapists and other front-line health care workers at Group Health facilities around the Puget Sound region.
In July, more than 90 percent of 2,200 Group Health workers – members of Service Employees Union International Local 1199 – voted to authorize a strike. They will announce details today, such as whether it will be an indefinite strike or targeted walkouts.
Group Health and its employees are fighting over health benefit changes. The company wants workers to pay more for health care. Group Health employees now get health benefits with $5 co-pays for office visits and prescriptions and no premiums.
The union has taken the fight to the airwaves, with radio commercials urging people to pressure Group Health to back down from its health benefits proposal. The union says the proposal would cost workers thousands of dollars.
Scott Armstrong, Group Health’s chief operating officer, said company officials are disappointed that workers may strike.
“Regardless of union action, Group Health physicians, physician assistants, nurse supervisors and other team members will be at work caring for our patients,” Armstrong said Wednesday evening.
Group Health Cooperative, a nonprofit based in Seattle, provides health care coverage and services to 540,000 members in Washington and northern Idaho.
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