No peace at PeaceHealth | Bellingham St Joseph’s hospital workers to go on strike Monday

||| FROM KRISTIN HYDE for SEIU HEALTHCARE |||

Bellingham, Washington – A supermajority of workers organized as Peace Health United and represented by their union SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, authorized a strike to begin Monday, May 12th. 

Workers including CNAs, housekeeping, trauma registrars, phlebotomists, imaging technicians and other essential hospital staff will walk out of the hospital on Monday at 6:00am and are expected to be on picket lines all week. Workers will gather for sign making on Saturday, May 10 at 12-2pm at Structures Brewing. A strike rally is planned for Friday May 16 at 5 pm.

Jose Reta, an MRI technician at PeaceHealth St Joe’s, explained why workers are striking: “Bellingham PeaceHealth is the most profitable of all their locations in Washington state, but they don’t seem to care that members of their own staff are living in cars, or that we stock a food pantry for our colleagues who can’t meet their own basic needs because the pay is so low. I’ll be joining my coworkers on strike because PeaceHealth has shown us they just don’t care.”

Courtney Sly, a trauma registrar who has worked at PeaceHealth for eighteen years, commented on what workers are fighting for: “We’d rather be caring for patients. But with PeaceHealth refusing to address low wages and reduced health care benefits for the people who care for our community, we have no other choice. We hope this strike is a wake up call to PeaceHealth that paying huge salaries to executives, while staff responsible for providing essential care and services are struggling to afford housing and other basic needs is not in the best interests of their business or our community.”

PeaceHealth is a nonprofit healthcare system based in Vancouver, WA with nine hospitals and medical clinics in Washington, including PeaceHealth St. Joseph, a Level II Trauma Center serving all the northern counties in the state. Workers have been bargaining for a new contract for more than 8 months. 

PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s workers are asking community members to support their call for a contract that prioritizes patient care over corporate profits by joining them on the strike line, signing a petition, calling the PeaceHealth CEO, and donating to the Hardship Fund to help offset financial obligations for striking workers.

PeaceHealth United is made up of more than 900 healthcare workers at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. They are service and tech workers and lab professionals fighting for contracts that will protect essential healthcare workers’ rights: great wages, stable and secure benefits, and staffing for safe patient care and less caregiver burnout.  

SEIU Healthcare 1199NW is a statewide union representing more than 37,000 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, pharmacists, technicians, professionals, therapists, mental health workers, certified nursing aides, housekeeping and dietary staff, and other healthcare workers. Service Employees International Union is the largest union of healthcare workers in the nation.