SPOKANE, Wash. – Around 500 technical workers at Providence’s Sacred Heart Hospital voted to go on strike from April 22nd to April 30th, striking for better wages and benefits.
At a press conference held Wednesday, Sacred Heart employees said the strike was a result of Providence’s unfair behavior throughout the entire bargaining process.
Kim Estes, a Surgical Technologist at Sacred Heart for nearly four decades, says employees were pushed into a corner,” we show up, and unfortunately, this next week, Sacred Heart is not allowing us to show up to our job.”
Estes said that despite being in the industry for decades, she lives paycheck to paycheck. Other Providence employees said that based on their wages, it has been difficult to retain new professionals.
“We do it all, and we take care of the people, and that’s what we’re there for. And that’s what we want to get back to, but we want to be competitive,” said Estes.
However, she still has hope that Providence will come to the table before Monday, “I hope sacred heart will meet with us before the 22nd at two o’clock in the afternoon so we can continue on our wonderful work.”
Susan Stacey, the Chief Executive for the Inland Northwest Service Area at Providence, told NonStop Local that’s not going to happen. ” The strike will happen Monday at 2 p.m.”
She added they were back into a corner, “they made a choice to make a strike vote.”
Stacey said she had to focus on what was coming down the pipeline, “I had to turn my attention from bargaining to preparing.”
NonStop Local asked Stacey about some of the terms of the agreement they presented to the union, particularly regarding salary. She said it was complex and did not offer concrete umbers.
“It is market competitive. It will allow us to recruit and retain quality caregivers as we have in the past and look forward to doing in the future.”
Estes said the rates the hospital is paying for replacement is double her pay, which is something Stacey said was necessary, “we are committed to having quality, safe staffing, and that costs money and short notice to bring people in from around the country to continue to provide the safe care is costly.”
Estes urged that the impact of the strike spans far beyond the walls of Sacred Heart, “it impacts the whole city citywide; every group, every person is the ripple effect.”
