Workers who handle payments and make sure insurance claims are processed at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital have the option to work lots of voluntary overtime this holiday season because they defended their contract when management insisted on subcontracting their work.
“Management thought we were weak and that they could walk right over us, but now we’re stronger than ever,” said Christina Nuno, an insurance clerk and NUHW steward at the hospital.
The workers’ NUHW contract is crystal clear when it comes to prohibiting subcontracting of union work. But last July, management claimed the hospital stood to lose up to $100 million in revenue if action wasn’t taken quickly to address longstanding unpaid accounts from insurers.
The outstanding accounts were the result of poor management that prioritized handling new accounts instead of dealing with accounts that had gone unpaid. But management’s solution was to violate the workers contract and subcontract out the work.
When workers objected, management came back to the table and insisted the only way they would relent would be if workers agreed to mandatory overtime in order to address the old accounts before the hospital would lose the ability to collect.
Management attempted to force workers to accept their “last and final offer” and refused to continue bargaining.
However, the workers responded with a unified show of force. They held a March on the Boss in July that was attended by everyone in the approximately 40-person department. This demonstration followed a cease and desist order and a grievance that was in the process of being escalated to arbitration.
In October, management said it turned out that there weren’t as many outstanding accounts as once thought and that they’d accept that workers would address them via voluntary overtime.
“I think the march on the boss really moved them,” Nuno said. “They saw how upset and united we were, and they knew they’d end up losing in arbitration. This has been a great lesson for us as we get ready to negotiate our next contract. We can successfully stand up to management; as long as we stand together.”
