RICHLAND, Wash.-Over 1,100 Kadlec technical and service workers have issued a notice to strike to Providence Healthcare executives.
Healthcare workers at Kadlec, members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW hand-delivered the legally required 10-day notice to hold an unfair labor practice strike to Kadlec CNO Kirk Harper. on Friday, Aug. 9.
A strike would highlight Providence’s disregard for workers’ rights under the NLRA, and failure to bring forth meaningful proposals that will recruit, retain, address inequities in the workplace, and keep patients safe, according to an SEIU press release on the notice to strike.
If a new agreement is not reached a potential strike would start on Aug. 20 and last for seven days.
SEIU Healthcare 1199NW workers and Providence officials have been negotiating since Jan. 2023 and have held 13 bargaining sessions, with the latest on Aug. 8 ending with no new contract agreement in place.
“There’s been no compassion, no real acknowledgment of our sacrifices, and very little urgency toward settling a contract that we can bring back to our coworkers,” said Mona Chalmers, certified nursing assistant and member of the bargaining team
The contract for Kadlec’s service and technical workers expired in December of 2023 and SEIU has been negotiating since January, with union members recently voting to make their contract demands public after two contract extensions and multiple bargaining sessions, according to the union’s website.
