St. Mary Hospital Workers to Vote on Union (Chief Executive got a 38 percent pay increase)

[Omaha Steve]

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070807006508&newsLang=en

August 07, 2007 09:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time
News From USW: St. Mary Hospital Workers to Vote on Union

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly 600 service and technical workers at St. Mary Medical Center, Apple Valley, are scheduled to vote Aug. 16 and 17 in a National Labor Relations Board election on whether to form a union and be represented by the Health Care Workers Council of the United Steelworkers.

Workers in these same job categories, including housekeeping, physical therapy and radiology declined representation 3 ½ years ago, but much has changed since then.

Many of these workers are experiencing increased job stress because of cutbacks in their departments while watching unionized registered nurses at St. Mary receive pay raises of at least 18 percent, plus increases in weekend and shift differential under a 2 ½ -year labor contract signed in 2006.

In addition, hospital workers learned recently in USW newsletters that St. Mary gave its Chief Executive Officer Jason Barker a 38 percent pay increase, so that he made a total of $517,523 in 2006, according to information the non-profit hospital filed with the Internal Revenue Service and made public on a form called a 990.

Mr. Barker's raise -- $143,461 in one year – contrasted sharply with the wages of workers seeking to form a union, many of whom have been told by administrators such as Mr. Barker that they cannot have full-time positions or get the full medical benefits that go with that because the hospital is trying to live within a tight budget.

The 600 service and technical workers also learned in recent reports that USW representatives prepared from the hospital's 990s that St. Mary made millions while denying workers full-time jobs and refusing "for budgetary reasons" to increase staffing levels.

FULL story at link.