The local Service Employee International Union is trying to woo
300 employees at Hazel Hawkins Hospital to form a union
– an alliance that came about when employees voiced their
concern about unfavorable working conditions such as low pay and
favoritism, according to SEIU organizers.
The local Service Employee International Union is trying to woo 300 employees at Hazel Hawkins Hospital to form a union – an alliance that came about when employees voiced their concern about unfavorable working conditions such as low pay and favoritism, according to SEIU organizers.
The employees considering forming a union include housekeeping and kitchen staff, technicians and ward clerks, according to SEIU organizer Mayra Mora. Nurses, doctors, supervisors and administrative staff are not involved.
“The representation is awful. (Employees) go to their supervisors with a problem and they don’t do anything,” Mora said. “They are retaliated against for speaking out.”
Most employees want to unionize for various reasons, Mora said. Their pay isn’t up to par with surrounding hospitals and they contend favoritism toward some employees creates problems for others, she said.
“With a union they’ll have representation, a union contract, more job security and more of a voice,” she said.
Gordon Machado, the treasurer of the hospital’s board of directors, doesn’t believe the claims are true, and doesn’t know why employees would want to form a union, he said.
“I think we’ve been very fair to employees and on par with wages and benefits,” he said. “We certainly try to keep employees up with the industry and happy and harmonious. We can’t have an efficient operation if employees aren’t happy – it starts from the employees on up.”
Catherine Kpeglo, a nurses’ assistant at the Mabie Northside Skilled Nursing Facility for the past three years, said by talking to other employees it is clear that favoritism occurs because some people get paid more than others for doing the same job.
The pay scale at Hazel Hawkins also is lower than neighboring hospitals, such as Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, she said.
“We are the lowest because they claim we are a small hospital so they can’t pay us as much,” Kpeglo said. “At Natividad nurses’ assistant get $14 or $15 an hour. We get $10.”
The union plans to meet with the hospital’s CEO Ken Underwood sometime within the next month, Mora said.
Underwood declined to comment on the employees’ unionization.
“I don’t want to make any statements that would be interpreted by anyone as anti-union,” he said.
Because the hospital receives state funding, regulations prohibit him from using state funds to discourage unionizing, he said.
Instead, he issued a statement about the hospital’s stance.
“We respect the rights of the employees to choose whether or not they wish to be represented by a union,” Underwood said in the statement. “The policy of the hospital is to utilize the California State Mediation and conciliation Service to supervise a fair election to decide this issue. Our experience is that unions are more than agreeable to work with the hospital to assure a fair election.”
But Underwood and the hospital’s board of directors would have no say whether a union will be organized or not, Machado said.
While employees have “every right” to organize, Machado said it will segregate departments, divide employees and supervisors and take away from the family atmosphere.
“You’re not working on a one-on-one basis – you’re dealing with a union instead of a direct relationship with the employees,” he said. “It’s a little more harmonious the other way.”
Employees at surrounding hospitals such as Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, Salinas Valley Memorial and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy all have union representation, Mora said.
Pat Butcher, a registered nurse at Natividad, has worked at the hospital for the past five years and believes a union at Hazel Hawkins would behoove both the employees and hospital administration.
“It helps us to be able to communicate better with our bosses,” she said. “I’ve worked in union and non-union, and I’m more comfortable in a union hospital. It certainly won’t hurt them, it will actually help them in the long run.”
Hazel Hawkins employee Therese Miller, who has worked as a dietary aid and cashier in the kitchen for about a year, believes a union could help with job security and employee equality.
“I’d like to have a level playing field, because right now I know I don’t,” she said. “I feel very unprotected, like I could lose my job any day.”
The people not in favor of forming a union are afraid, Mora said.
“The bottom line is they feel they could get fired if they express any union support,” Mora said. “But by law, the Constitution says they have the right to assemble and organize.”
Kpeglo said a movement to unionize about 20 years ago resulted in people getting fired, which has fostered the fear many employees have now.
“They will tell you up front, they want it but they are scared,” she said.
Mora has spent the past three months educating employees about the union and finding out who’s for it and who’s not. She doesn’t have a timeline of when an actual employee vote would take place because several more meetings need to take place first, she said.
If a union formed, employees would have to pay monthly union dues of 1.13 percent of their base salary. The majority of employees who are in favor of organizing approve of the fee, Mora said.
“They feel it’s somewhat of a bargain,” she said. “For about 1 percent of your pay you’re getting representation, you’re getting the resources the union has and you’re getting a contract. Most workers feel it’s not a lot for what you get.”
Miller doesn’t mind paying the union dues, and said the other employee’s she’s talked to don’t mind, either.
“I think paying 1 percent is worth having somebody there for us,” she said. “Other people don’t seem to mind paying it because they feel like I do.”
