PORT ANGELES — Nearly a dozen hospital workers and Port Angeles business leaders this week defended Olympic Medical Center against past claims it is treating its nurses unfairly.
A crowd of about 100 packed into Linkletter Hall on Wednesday and an adjacent overflow room in the lower conference area of the hospital.
Most came to support OMC in its contentious, year-and-a-half-long dispute with Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW.
When negotiations over staffing levels and health care benefits reached an impasse, the hospital’s governing board voted unanimously Feb. 1 to approve a three-year contract for SEIU workers — without an agreement from the SEIU union bargaining team.
The union alleged bad-faith bargaining and filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint with the Public Employment Relations Commission.
Unfair to taxpayers
Kaj Ahlburg, a retired Wall Street lawyer and past president of the Port Angeles Business Association, said it would be unfair to local taxpayers for the financially strapped hospital to cede to SEIU, which represents some 350 nurses, dietary workers and other hospital staff.
“Most taxpayers in the hospital district make much less than the workers at OMC, who belong to SEIU,” Ahlburg told the commissioners.
“I hope that you will continue to stand pat and not give in to SEIU’s unreasonable demands.”
Sarah Garrett, who works in patient access services, said she supported the board’s decision because the economy has changed.
“We live in a community where a lot of our neighbors are suffering,” she said.
Garrett said members of other unions at OMC were starting to feel like: “Why did we settle?”
OMC officials have said the health care benefits in the SEIU contract are the same for management and the hospital district’s 374 United Food and Commercial Workers employees.
UFCW 21 bargaining units settled the revised three-year contracts with OMC last year.
Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis has said the hospital-wide benefits packages are highly competitive with other medical centers in the region.
But SEIU members have repeatedly testified that inadequate staffing levels have compromised patient safety and that the hospital is forcing them to pay more than they can afford for their children’s health care insurance.
Committee queries
Dr. Mark Fischer, speaking on behalf of the OMC Medical Executive Committee, said, “Questions about safe staffing and insinuations about OMC quality of care and patient safety have occurred.
“The Medical Executive Committee of OMC would like to reassure our community that the quality of care, patient safety, mission and vision at OMC remains excellent,” Fischer said.
“This excellence is the result of collaborative teamwork with dedicated nurses, physicians, staff and administration.”
The contract for SEIU and other OMC workers includes a first-year 3 percent raise for nurses, a 3.5 percent raise for service workers and a 4 percent raise for dietary workers on top of other longevity increases.
“I’m not getting a raise this year, nor are many of my colleagues,” said Dick Pilling, a Port Angeles Realtor and chairman of the Clallam County Republican Party who attended the meeting.
“I would encourage the board to remain firm in its resolve to stay the course.”
OMC makes a 5 percent retirement contribution with no employee match, provides full health care coverage for employees and 85 percent coverage for dependents, hospital officials said.
Chief Financial Officer Julie Rukstad on Wednesday said salaries and benefits account for 59.9 percent of 2011 operating revenue — up from 57 percent in 2010 and 54 percent in 2009.
Several speakers expressed their appreciation to hospital administration for avoiding layoffs.
OMC approved a financial stability plan in February that cut $5.5 million in 2012 spending, including a one-year delay in the long-awaited expansion of the emergency room.
The plan did not include cuts to patient services, outsourcing or layoffs.
Reading from a statement, Fischer said economic solvency is “mandatory for OMC to remain an independent, public, community medical center.”
He said financial solvency is “crucial in maintaining current and future superior quality of care, patient safety and satisfaction with our services” and “crucial in the future stability of our terrific team of nurses, staff and providers.”
“Innovative health care delivery, political advocacy and belt tightening are essential,” Fischer said.
“In an era of necessary health reform, everyone should agree that paradigms much change.”
SEIU supporters
Although the crowd at the Wednesday business meeting was decidedly pro-OMC board, a group of SEIU supporters made their presence known.
“Three minutes!” one shouted as Fisher was speaking.
All 13 speakers were told to keep their remarks to three minutes or less.
Tim Kelly made the trip from Forks to testify in support of SEIU members.
“I’m a proud union member whose benefits benefit doctors and everyone else in this institution when we come down here for treatment,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.