To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Sadie Crabtree of SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West, +1-323-365-2083

Industry-leading agreement will improve recruitment and retention of caregivers at California's largest hospital corporation

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An elected bargaining team of over 80 healthcare workers in SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) reached a landmark master agreement with the state's largest hospital corporation on Sunday. The agreement with Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) covers 14,000 workers, and it would improve recruitment and retention at 33 facilities by providing frontline caregivers with some of the best wages and benefits in the industry.

"This agreement sets new standards for healthcare workers across the country," said Stan Lyles, a respiratory care practitioner at Northridge Hospital Medical Center and member of the bargaining team. "It's going to make an extraordinary difference in the lives of caregivers, our families, and our patients."

The UHW bargaining team expects their agreement to set the pattern for negotiations by SEIU Locals 121RN and 1107, which are still negotiating with CHW.

UHW also plans to make the CHW agreement a pattern for negotiations with smaller hospital systems, which are now underway as part of UHW's historic coordinated bargaining campaign. After working for over a decade to line up the expiration dates of their contracts, more than 75,000 members of UHW have been in negotiations with their employers this year to improve patient care standards and conditions for workers. CHW is the second hospital system to settle.

This victory comes on the heels of breakthrough contracts with 13 Mariner and Sava nursing homes in Northern California and a new wage scale agreement with Kaiser Permanente. Approximately 15,000 workers are still in negotiations with smaller healthcare companies, including Daughters of Charity, Sutter Health, Windsor Healthcare and Kindred Healthcare.

CHW workers will vote to ratify the contract over the next two weeks.

The UHW-CHW agreement includes:

-- Average wage increases of 26% over four years with some workers achieving increases of up to 35.4%. -- Establishment of a supplemental unemployment fund to provide benefits for workers who are laid off after all other efforts to avoid a layoff are exhausted. For up to six months CHW will supplement the employee's unemployment benefits at 60-80% of their base compensation. -- Creation of six full time Contract Specialist positions, appointed by the union and funded by CHW, to allow rank-and-file members to work full time for a year on implementation of the contract and other union building activities in their facilities. Workers can return to their previous jobs without suffering any loss of seniority or other benefits. -- Eight hours of paid steward time per steward per month for a maximum of twenty stewards per facility. -- A 2009 re-opener on retirement to make improvements to the already existing pension plan and other issues. -- Continued participation in the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West and Joint Employer Education Fund, which provides educational and training opportunities for healthcare professionals. -- An additional 680 CHW workers brought under the CHW master contract, including over 400 new union members at CHW Medical Foundation clinics and over 250 workers at CHW's Mark Twain Hospital who had been members of another SEIU local.

These improvements come on top of what is already one of the best hospital contracts in the country, with 100% paid family health insurance, a pension and a 401(k) plan, retiree healthcare, committees on safe staffing levels which allow for binding arbitration by a neutral third party if no agreement can be reached, wage scales, and strong job security and union rights provisions.

"UHW's settlement with CHW is historic," said UHW President Sal Rosselli. "Not just because of the tremendous gains for thousands of CHW workers and their families, but because it shows that despite these difficult economic times, workers can improve their lives when they are organized and motivated to build a constructive relationship with their employer."

With more than 150,000 members, SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West is the fastest-growing healthcare union in the United States. We represent healthcare workers in all job classifications and all healthcare settings, including hospitals, homecare, nursing homes and clinics. Our mission is to achieve high-quality healthcare for all.

CONTACT: Sadie Crabtree, 323-365-2083

SOURCE SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West

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