Keck-USC workers win raises in tough contract fight

After a hard-fought campaign that forced management to move from wage freezes to substantial raises, more than 1,200 workers at Keck Hospital of USC and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center recently ratified a new contract.
 
The three-year agreement will boost wages by an average of 23.4 percent, with some departments, such as surgery and nursing units, expected to see pay increases exceeding 30 percent. Full-time employees will also receive a ratification bonus ranging from $2,600 to $4,100. 

Workers also forced management to back off proposed takeaways, and keep their free health plan and their protections against subcontracting.

“When I think about where we started in negotiations, and where we ended up, I’m really proud of what we accomplished,” said Miguel Gonzalez, a union steward in the Environmental Services Department at Keck Hospital of USC. “But I know that not everyone is thrilled with this contract, and I respect their point of view.”

Gonzalez, who has worked at the hospital for 22 years, said he and his coworkers were happy with the wage increases gained in this round of negotiations, describing them as “the best we’ve ever won.”

Keck–USC workers have always driven a hard bargain in contract negotiations. In previous rounds of bargaining, they won strong raises and forced the university to bring in-house their coworkers in housekeeping and food service, whose jobs had been subcontracted out to a company that provided poor wages and benefits.

This time around they fought back against wage freezes and takeaways, but when it came time for raises, the university prioritized addressing job classifications that were below market. That resulted in a contract that included big raises for many workers, such as workers in sterile processing whose salaries will increase by more than 40 percent over the next three years, but more modest raises for workers who remained well above the market, including senior respiratory therapists, whose salaries will increase by 12.5 percent.

That’s not unusual, but it proved difficult for a big, diverse bargaining committee and the workers they represented. The committee initially recommended rejecting management’s last, best and final offer, which workers then did in a relatively close vote.

But with an insufficient mandate for a strike, the committee ultimately agreed to wrangle a few more concessions from management before recommending that the revised offer be ratified, which it was with a strong majority.

“We struggled to hold together,” Gonzalez said. “It was a difficult situation, and it was painful to see cracks emerge. Now is a time for healing. We’ve always won good contracts, but the best way to win a better contract next time that everyone is happy with is to work together more closely and strengthen the ties that bind us.”