Last night our SEIU-UHW bargaining team secured a tentative agreement with Catholic Healthcare West to improve our pension, weekend differentials, and on-call pay.
At the start of negotiations, CHW said they wouldn't spend more than $2 million additional per year to improve the pension, and $2.3 million for differentials and on-call pay-an agreement signed by ousted UHW official, and current NUHW leader, John Borsos.
But because SEIU-UHW members took action through purple-ups, petitions, and delegations, CHW finally agreed to apply $6 million per year to fix the pension, and pay out the $2.3 million for differentials and on-call pay over just 23 months-for the greatest long-term impact in raising pay.
Our new agreement includes:
- A greatly improved pension where benefits increase with pay to replace the flawed GDP plan.
- Weekend differentials at all hospitals, including 30 cents per hour for hospitals that had no weekend differential previously.
- A system-wide minimum on-call pay rate of $5 per hour, bringing up rates which have been as low as $2.50 at some hospitals.
- An increase of 50 cents per hour in on-call pay rates for Sacramento hospitals, Woodland and Mt. Shasta.
- Any hospital with higher standards preserves their existing higher rates.
"It was a real struggle to start fixing the mess that former UHW leaders left behind on our pension. But our new agreement goes a long way to getting back on track-we want a secure retirement for every SEIU-UHW member at CHW, and united in our union, we have the strength to fight for it."
--Stan Lyles, Northridge Hospital Medical Center
"We won every one of our goals. How? Solidarity. I've never seen unity like this before. We showed how incredible things happen when we stand together as brothers and sisters."
--Frank Valdez, St. Joseph Medical Center
"This victory is due to our members all over the state. The power of this bargaining team came from the power of all the people in this union taking action and fighting together."
--Debbie Nickell, Mercy Redding Medical Center
"We worked hard and won a good contract with a better pension, a weekend differential for the first time, and improvements to the on-call pay. "
--Marjorie Pereira, Dominican Hospital
Learn More Specifics About What We Won!
Members of the SEIU-UHW bargaining team will be meeting one-on-one with members statewide to answer questions and provide copies of the new tentative agreement. Dates to ratify the agreement will be announced soon so that every SEIU-UHW member will have the opportunity to vote to approve or reject the agreement.
Contact an SEIU-UHW bargaining team member or steward for more information.