Nineteen Florida hospitals agree to union contracts [The Miami Herald]

Dec. 08--SEIU announced Wednesday that its healthcare workers at 19 HCA-owned hospitals in Florida have approved "landmark agreements" -- the latest development in a recent surge of union activity that has included the organizing of two South Florida hospitals.

"In the last 12 months, we've been working pretty hard," said Monica Russo, regional director for SEIU Local 1199. "We've organized at 18 hospitals in Florida. I don't know of any other private sector where there have been that kind of victories in a Southern state."

All the facilities are owned by the national for-profit chains HCA and Tenet Healthcare.

HCA spokeswoman Nicole Baxter said Wednesday the chain's hospitals were "pleased with the outcome" of the recent contract negotiations. Tenet did not respond to requests for comment.

In recent weeks, workers at Good Samaritan Medical Center, a Tenet hospital in West Palm Beach, voted to be represented by SEIU, while workers at Palmetto General in Hialeah voted to be represented by SEIU and another union, the National Nurses Organizing Committee.

Meanwhile, Jackson Health System has declared an official impasse with SEIU Local 1991, which represents nurses and other healthcare professionals. That means a magistrate will try to bring the sides together, and if that fails, Miami-Dade'sCounty Commission will decide what the contract should be -- a process that could take several months.

The healthcare industry has generally been considered a thriving sector in a struggling economy, but union organizers say growing concern about job security spurred interest even as unions in other industries have declined.

"It's really about having a voice," said Michelle Maziejka, a nurse at Good Samaritan. "This provides us with a seat at the table," to work with management to make the hospital better, both for patients and for profits.

With Congress considering major cuts to Medicare to reduce the federal deficit and the healthcare reform act setting up major changes in healthcare, "job security is a big issue," said Maziejka, a nurse for 19 years. "Everybody is threatened."

Edmund Bruno, a Tampa-based director of the NNOC, said, "You see the decline in auto and steel" unions, but nurses are "the exception to the rule," seeking a new solidarity.

Bruno added, "We're pretty aggressive. We've had strikes and threats of strikes."

Both the NNOC and SEIU have a reputation for being aggressive in recruiting new members while other unions have struggled to retain existing members. The two unions battled each other fiercely until 2009, when they reached an agreement to stop competing. At Palmetto General, NNOC organized the nurses while other hospital workers joined SEIU.

Roger King, a labor lawyer with the national firm Jones Day who has represented HCA, said that the two major hospital chains entered into agreements with the unions not to actively oppose organizing efforts in some locations. He said the exact terms of the agreement are confidential, but pointed out that Florida, Texas and Kansas City have seen many hospitals being unionized in the past year.

King said that the hospital chains made the move because they were concerned about possible union campaigns against the companies.

King said the newly unionized workers were not necessarily voicing dissatisfaction with employers but were showing concern about the "tremendous financial pressures" on hospitals caused by federal woes.

The SEIU contracts announced Wednesday include Westside Regional, Plantation General, University and Northwest Medical Center in Broward County and Kendall Regional Medical Center and Aventura Hospital in Miami-Dade.

Russo of SEIU said the contracts focused on job security, including provisions that the unionized workers remain in place even if the facility is sold. She said the contracts also removed salary caps which had meant that some veteran employees had gone years without a raise.

The agreements also establish labor-management committees so workers "have a real voice," Russo said, in discussing issues like staffing levels and patient safety.

In South Florida, SEIU is the dominant healthcare union. In the past year, it has unionized 11,500 workers at Aventura, Plantation General, Westside Regional and eight other facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward.

Also in the region, the NNOC represents nurses at Palmetto General and Florida Medical Center in Broward.

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