Technical workers at Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center are now on the picket line, entering day two of their announced eight-day strike.
People in yellow shirts representing the United Food and Commercial Workers union carried pickets Monday afternoon that implored Providence to bargain in good faith. They were joined by a few union members from other occupations, including nurses and firefighters. Drivers honked their vehicle horns in support as they drove past.
The 500 Sacred Heart employees include medical workers with technical skills, such as respiratory therapists. Their contract expired last fall and talks with Providence Health have stalled. They’re looking for pay and benefits they say are more in line with what similar workers at other Spokane hospitals are making.
Cardiovascular technician Derek Roybal says Providence is replacing him and his striking colleagues with traveling technicians who will make three times what he’s making.
“Everybody feels about the same. They feel anxious. They feel a little nervous for their patients because Providence keeps saying they’re going to get the same quality of care they are receiving from us but from these travelers, which we really don’t believe those people don’t know our doctors, don’t know our hospital, don’t know our rooms, our labs, all the challenges that come with walking into a completely unfamiliar place," he said.
Talks between Providence and union negotiators have halted while workers are picketing. Hospital leaders say they’re focusing all of their energy on caring for patients and training replacement workers who have been imported to fill in. They say patient services will continue as scheduled and that they’re working to ensure picketing employees don’t block people from entering and exiting the hospital. That appeared to be the case Monday afternoon as picketers stayed away from the hospital entrance.
Providence says it has made offers that it considers competitive with other providers. It says it looks forward to resuming negotiations after April 30, the final declared day of the strike. Union officials say it's possible the strike could be extended if the Sacred Heart employees voted to continue it.
Roybal says relations between the two sides are frosty right now.
“They’re deactivating our badges. They’re fencing off the hospital. The other day they were even fencing off the sidewalk. We have video of people trying to get, that are actually just going to work, they’re pushed to walking into the street around cars and it’s like who are they afraid of," he said.
The union representing the workers will hold a solidarity rally Wednesday evening at 7 in Cowley Park, just to the north of Sacred Heart Medical Center.
