Labor Unions Archives

Valley Hospital Spokane Valley

Photo credit to Harvey Brown

Finally, the Tennessee-based Community Health Systems who run Deaconess Hospital and Valley Hospital in the Spokane area have agreed to a bargaining date with employees.  On Friday, March 21, nurses and other medical workers from Deaconess and Valley Hospitals represented by SEIU local will be negotiating with management over workplace issues.  Staffing levels and patients care at Valley and Deaconess Hospitals will be front and center to the discussions.

Nurses and other medical workers await a bargaining date for long-awaited contracts with the Deaconess Hospital, Spokane, Wa. and Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley, Wa. Their key demand for more staffing to improve patient health and safety goes unanswered by the hospitals’ for-profit owner Community Health Systems Inc. Read the rest of this entry

Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley, WA

Photo credit to Harvey Brown

Our allies at SEIU local 1199 NW are still in dispute with the owners of Deaconess Hospital, Spokane, WA, and Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley, WA over the quality of patient care.  Community Health Systems Inc., from Franklin, Tennessee, owns both as part of a national chain of hospitals.  They have so far refused to meet the demands of their nurses and medical staff to increase staffing levels to better protect the health of patients. Kevin Graman, retired reporter from the Spokesman Review, wrote a great article on this dispute between labor and Deaconess and Valley Hospital over at SpokaneWatch.net. 

Meanwhile, Service Employees International Union 1199NW, the union that represents nurses at Valley Hospital and technical and service employees at both Valley and Deaconess Hospitals, presses its efforts to convince the state Legislature to follow California’s lead and impose mandatory nurse-patient ratios in Washington hospitals.

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