Staff in charge of maintaining critical facilities and equipment at Santa Rosa Memorial and Petaluma Valley hospitals went on strike Monday, seeking better pay in contract negotiations.
Hospital operator Providence said last week the sites are “well prepared” for the strike, which is scheduled to last two weeks.
“The planned work stoppages will not affect the safe, high-quality care that our patients have come to expect from Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital,” Providence said in a statement.
International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 39, said the wage package being offered by Providence would leave workers’ wages once again trailing their counterparts at nearby hospitals. The union said it represents a total of 17 workers at the two hospitals.
Abel Fuaau, Local 39 district representative, said 15 years ago wages for operating engineers in Santa Rosa Memorial and Petaluma Valley were about 36% below their local peers at Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health. Wage gains since then managed to narrow that gap to just 0.5%, Fuaau said.
The union represents similar workers at both local Kaiser and Sutter hospitals. Fuaau said Providence does not want to keep up with what other hospital systems are paying.
“We own the market in terms of what we’ve negotiated with the largest employers in the Bay Area,” Fuaau said. “(Providence) want a 9.5% discount.”
Providence said the strike comes after several months of negotiations with Local 39, and that it has in fact proposed “competitive wage increases and other meaningful contract enhancements.”
“We are disappointed that the union has chosen to strike instead of continuing to engage with us at the bargaining table,” Providence said in its statement.
Providence, based in Washington state, controls more than 51 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics across seven western states, including three hospitals in Sonoma County — Healdsburg is the third — as well as Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.
Gary Toavs, chief engineer at Memorial Hospital, was among those picketing on Monday. Toavs, who spent the past 25 years working at both Memorial and Petaluma Valley hospitals, said Providence is essentially proposing wages that keep up with the cost of living.
“You’re not gaining any ground at all,” he said.
Toavs manages the high pressure boiler plant at the hospital, a key piece of equipment that needs to be watched constantly.
“We keep all the infrastructure together and we do all the preventive maintenance on the fans and boilers and chillers and lights and toilets and TVs and beds and kitchen,” Toavs said.
“The hospital is open 24/7 and we are trauma center, so there’s a high volume of patients here all the time and some are very critical patients,” he said. “We’re not asking for the moon, we’re asking for fair wages.”
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.