With final contract negotiations between the United Stanford Workers and the University taking place today, more than 1,500 Stanford employees may walk out on the job come Monday. If a compromise is not achieved, these workers will join the approximately 1,300 Stanford Hospital employees that have already filed notice to begin their strike.

Represented by the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Local 715, both the University employees and the hospital workers have agreed to strike together on the same date. Expressing concerns about family health benefits and employee pension funds, the union cites employers’ lack of concern for their needs as the cause of their protest.

Stanford Hospital

negotiations

The SEIU Local 715 includes 1,412 nursing assistants, housekeepers, lab technicians and cafeteria workers at Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

The workers have demanded an increase in staffing levels to provide adequate patient care and safety. They have also asked for full healthcare coverage for workers’ families and cite other major hospitals in the area that fully fund health insurance for family members.

In addition, hospital employees have sought job security, as Stanford Hospital threatens to lay off workers after the creation of a new facility in Redwood City. Lastly, hospital workers have applied for industry standard wages, claiming that employees in some positions receive as much as 20 percent below the market rate for their work.

In the final negotiation between the union and hospital officials on Monday, Nov. 21, the union suggested raises of 30 percent over three years. The hospital, meanwhile, proposed a raise of 12 percent over three years, with additional raises for certain positions. This offer was denied by the SEIU, and workers voted the following Tuesday to authorize a strike.

With the strike impending, however, negotiations may possibly be resumed. SEIU President Zev Kritky described the chances a settlement will be reached.

“After the hospital union workers gave its 10-day-notice to the hospital, the hospital shortly after decided that they want to meet again on the morning of Dec. 7,” he said.

The results of this meeting, however, did not bring about significant change in the contract, as detailed by Stanford Hospital spokesperson Sarah Staley.

“The meeting on Dec. 7 between Stanford Hospital and the union was compulsory and federally mandated by the National Labor Relations Board,” she said. “The last official contract negotiation occurred on Nov. 21.”

Central to bargaining is the issue of industry wages. Union workers from the hospital cite a number of professions that are below average in terms of income.

An anesthesia technician, for example, receives $18.41 per hour at Stanford Hospital, while one at Valley Medical Center receives $20.43 per hour and one at Northern California Kaiser receives $22.48 per hour, according to union statistical figures.

The union cited this pattern throughout the salaries for hospital staff and has demanded equity. Its workers additionally have argued that hospitals such as Northern California Kaiser provide job security, an issue that the Stanford Hospital has neglected.

Hospital officials, however, disagree with the union’s claims and maintain that the hospital’s income practices are fair and equitable. In a news release published on Nov. 22, hospital negotiators cited offers of revised lay-off procedures and HMO premiums for spouses of employees earning less than $50,000 per year. Martha Marsh, president and chief executive officer of Stanford Hospital & Clinics, described these proposals.

“This collective package is very competitive with other hospitals in our region,” she said. “This proposal enhances the compensation package offered to our SEIU represented employees and our ability to recruit and retain.”

In an interview with The Daily, Staley highlighted the hospital’s active participation in meetings with the union.

“The issues that we have dealt with are wages, benefits and retirement,” she said. “We were highly responsive to these issues with the final benefits offer that we placed on the table. These are our valued employees and they deserve to not have to deal with lost wages. They deserve to receive the additional benefits that we proposed. It is regrettable that larger SEIU disagreements with the hospital will prevent that.”

Ultimately, the failure of the negotiation process renders it highly likely that the hospital workers’ strike will begin on Monday, Dec. 12. Short-term care is not expected to be affected, as Staley noted.

“We are a hospital,” she said. “Patient care is our number one priority.”

Stanford University negotiations

Similar to the demands of the hospital workers, the United Stanford Workers, which represents the service employees of Stanford University, has asked for full healthcare coverage for workers’ families and the preservation of current retirement security packages. Composed of more than 1,500 workers, the union includes food preparation personnel, custodial staff and University maintenance crews.

The University presently provides employees with a number of healthcare packages, from various HMO plans to PPO options. It funds the complete cost of workers’ coverage for Kaiser Permanente HMO and 82 percent of the cost of workers’ family health care. To pay for other health care options, however, workers must make up the difference in health insurance costs from their own salary.

The SEIU, in recent months, has pushed for fully-paid healthcare for workers’ families. It has also demanded that the University not cut retiree health benefits through reduction in pension funding, scheduled to begin on Jan. 1, 2006. Union members argue that the University is unfairly limiting employees’ access to appropriate retirement plans as well as dividing the union into workers with different retirement packages.

The University, however, maintains that its health care package ranks with the best of California employers. It cites that 25 percent of California employers provide retiree medical care, while Stanford provides $4,000 above Medicare for employees who have worked for more than 40 years.

Meanwhile, the University continues to remain open to compromise regarding pension packages. Associate Vice President and Director Alan Acosta and Senior Assistant to the President Jeff Wachtel described the University’s position in a joint statement.

“Pension benefits are a subject of ongoing negotiations between the University and SEU Local 715,” they said. “No decision has been made about changes at this point. Additionally, the current contract does not expire until Aug. 31, 2006. As part of the negotiations on that contract, the parties agreed that the contract could be reopened in the third year to discuss a limited number of issues, among them the pension plan. The union asked to reopen the contract and we are now discussing that limited set of issues. We will continue to negotiate these issues in good faith at the next session on Dec. 8.”

Today brings the final negotiation scheduled between the SEIU and the University. Sophomore Matt Seriff-Cullick, a member of Stanford Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), described the union’s goals for the meeting.

“Nobody wants a strike,” he said. “The union is looking for a total reversal in Union policy though. The last negotiation meeting, the University offered a negligible increase in retirement security that was miles away from what workers were looking for. The University will have to meet some of the workers’ demands for compromise to be feasible.”

When asked to describe the repercussions of the possible strike on students, Seriff-Cullick noted the inconveniences.

“Workers in the dining hall will walk out from the job,” he said. “Janitorial service will stop. Maintenance service will stop. Students will have to begin to take care of themselves. Hopefully, however, these concerns will be considered minor compared to the workers’ struggles with the University.”

Acosta and Wachtel, however, maintained the University would provide students with the necessities of residential life.

“In the event that SEIU Local 715 engages in a work stoppage or strike, we want to reassure students that the University will continue to operate and provide necessary services,” they said. “Stanford Dining has a plan in place to consolidate dining facilities and extend hours of operation to maintain service. Student Housing will also continue to respond to urgent repairs and provide core custodial service during this period.”

Student Involvement

With workers active in their negotiations with the University, students have generally responded to the labor struggles with their support for employee demands. At the forefront of student activism, SLAC has positioned students behind the workers through public demonstrations and coordinated efforts with union leaders.

SLAC, in conjunction with the Coalition for Labor Justice (CLJ), will stage a rally today in White Plaza, which is expected to attract more than 100 students. On Nov. 2, SLAC and the SEIU held a march of more than 500 workers and 100 students, raising awareness of the workers’ needs.

Seriff-Cullick described the organization’s planning and compared it to the SEIU’s approach.

“There are separate contracts with separate groups of workers,” he said. “Because the same decision-making structures are behind the negotiations, the workers, however, have agreed to negotiate together. They are exhibiting solidarity, and SLAC is modeling that. We, as students, must practice solidarity to achieve change.”

For this reason, SLAC has attempted to increase student awareness regarding labor issues. Senior Chris Vaughn, a member of SLAC, outlined the organization’s goal to draw students to the picket lines if and when strikes begin.

“In the various surveys and studies I have seen, roughly 70 percent of the student body is located left to center,” he said. “As observers of the student body have pointed out, the vast majority of people on the left are moderate liberals. While there are those on the left who are activists, this group is sadly a minority. One of the challenges of organizing at Stanford is that there is not a significant pool of activist-minded students to draw on. You have to bring people into the loop that perhaps have not done so on their own volition.”

Vaughn also recounted the last strike in University history as a 30-day demonstration spanning September and October of 1982.

“There were a number of students who supported the unions in that movement,” he said. “At the same time there were many students who were interviewed who expressed disgust and anger because of the conditions that emerged from the strike. I would not be surprised if some of those similar sentiments are expressed here. While convenience and inconvenience should not be swept under the rug, I hope the discussion on campus will center on labor and justice.”

Freshman Liz Brody shared Vaughn’s sentiments.

“I think it is unfortunate that people are focusing on how students are going to be affected and not the workers and the allocation of the University’s resources,” she said. “The workers will not be earning wages. Their job security will be threatened. Stanford students are capable of taking care of themselves, and we should think about the workers.”

Brody, though, recognized the practical implications of the strike as well.

“Life will change,” she said. “Living in the dorms will become harder. We will have to do more things ourselves. But ultimately, we have to decide what is more important: our luxuries or the workers’ necessities.”