Monday, Jan. 17, 2005 | 10:41 a.m.
The Services Employees International Union Local 1107, which represents about 8,000 health care workers in Nevada, will be working with 1,000 additional health workers in Northern Nevada.
The SEIU has been interested in expanding its presence in Nevada, but the timetable was moved up when the Operating Engineers Local 3 requested a service agreement with the SEIU, which enables the SEIU to handle the daily activities of representing the members, but does not affect the labor contracts.
The Operating Engineers Local 3, which primarily represents construction workers in Northern Nevada and Northern California, represents nearly 800 nurses at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, more than 100 nurses and service employees at Northeastern Nevada Regional Medical Center in Elko and about 20 service and maintenance workers at Mt. Grant General Hospital in Hawthorne. The Operating Engineers also represent health care workers at three Northern California hospitals.
The SEIU opened an office in Reno last Monday with two employees and will carry out the contracts already negotiated between the Operating Engineers and the hospitals, said Jane McAlevey, executive director of the SEIU Local 1107.
The SEIU receives a service fee for maintaining the contracts and may assist with future contract negotiations, but it's too early to tell at this point, McAlevey said.
At some point, employees at the three Northern Nevada hospitals will get the opportunity to affirm that they want to be affiliated with the SEIU, McAlevey said.
Bill Freitas, director of the Operating Engineers Local 3's health care division, said service agreements are common and union members will notice little change other than who they call when they have a problem.
"They (the SEIU) have a base there that makes sense to do this rather than us," Freitas said. "We still are the exclusive representative. They service the agreement. The contract is the same."
The Operating Engineers may still represent the health care workers, but McAlevey said being affiliated with a nationally known health care union will strengthen their voices.
"Washoe is a very high-quality institution," McAlevey said. "Nurses see the opportunity to say let's take a good institution and make it better."
Nurses in northern Nevada say they want what the SEIU has negotiated for Las Vegas Valley nurses.
Desaree Wroblewski, a post partum nurse at Washoe Medical Center, said the nurses are "excited" about being represented by a health care union.
The Washoe nurses want a pay scale that accounts for experience and years of service because although the pay has been increased a couple of times, it is still less than what other nurses in the state make, she said.
"We're still not commiserate to what other nurses receive in the state or in the area," Wroblewski said. "There's inequality in the pay scale. There are new nurses making the same or close to what 20-year veteran nurses make."
A pay scale was implemented at Valley and Desert Springs hospitals, which are owned by King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services Inc.
Under the terms of the two-year contracts that were approved in July, the nurses will receive between an 11 percent and 21 percent increase in pay over two years, depending on their current wages. They also were granted pay increases through 20 years of service instead of a final raise after 10 years of service.
The nurses also want a pension plan to replace their 401(k) plans, Wroblewski said.
The SEIU has been pushing for pension plans at the Las Vegas Valley hospitals it represents. Currently, University Medical Center's SEIU Local 1107-represented workers are the only ones who have pensions. The SEIU attempted to establish them for about 900 nurses at Valley and Desert Springs hospitals, but that request was not granted by the hospitals' parent company, Universal Health Services Inc.
Some nurses also want better health benefits that cost less and cover more services, Wroblewski said, adding that she has not had any problems with her health plan, but she doesn't use it often.
"Even though we're really grateful for what the Operation Engineers did in championing our cause, hopefully we'll get further with the Service Employees," Wroblewski said.
She said non-nursing employees at Washoe are interested to see what difference the SEIU makes for the health care workers.
Bill Welch, president and chief executive officer of the Nevada Hospital Association, said the SEIU's presence in the north has some benefits for the health care industry.
"Having the SEIU as the official spokesperson for all union nurses, it will give one common voice and help us to come to common ground," he said.
In 2006, four of the health care contracts for Las Vegas Valley SEIU members will expire, and one or two others could expire, depending on the terms negotiated with St. Rose Dominican Hospital, which gives the union the ability to make sweeping changes in the majority of the hospitals.
The SEIU represents registered nurses at University Medical Center, Desert Springs, Valley and Sunrise hospitals. It also represents technicians at Desert Springs Hospital and health employees at Clark County Health District.
As of October, the SEIU represents about 1,500 registered nurses, technicians, clerks, cafeteria workers and other support staff at the Siena and Rose de Lima campuses of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. Contract negotiations are scheduled to begin soon for those workers.
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