Members of the Service Employees International Union working at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital formally announced plans to strike beginning at 8 a.m. on Labor Day after efforts to agree on a new collective bargaining contract failed.
A group of 11 SEIU District 1199 members entered the hospital in Ohio City around noon Tuesday and delivered the one-page notice to hospital president Dr. Timothy Barnett. Hospital officials called police and security, who peacefully ushered members from the building.
The SEIU — which represents transportation, maintenance and nursing support roles — and the hospital have been negotiating since the union's previous contract expired in April.
The Cleveland Clinic is to blame for the strike, said Brian Higgins, grievance chair of the union’s executive board.
“The Cleveland Clinic has refused to bargain in good faith," he said. "They've left us no choice."
Among the issues the union has raised in talks is what it sees as preferential treatment given to nonunion employees. Union members want paid parental leave, short-term disability insurance, a retirement account match and the right to be called “caregivers” like non-union members, Higgins said.
"It just makes you feel horrible," he said of the different treatment he believes union members receive. "It hurts. It hurts."
Union members allege discrimination, unequal treatment and retaliation by the hospital for their union organizing.
"They discriminate against the union because we want to have a voice at the table," Higgins said.
The union has filed more than two dozen unfair labor practice charges against the hospital for issues such as failure to bargain in good faith, refusing to provide information, retaliation, harassment and discrimination against union members and intimidation and interfering with union member rights, according to the SEIU.
For its part, the Clinic said it plans to continue bargaining, adding in the meantime there will be no interruption of care.
“We plan to continue negotiating with the bargaining unit at Lutheran Hospital with the goal of achieving a mutually agreeable contract renewal," the hospital said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.
On this, both sides agree. Union members also pledged to continue working toward an agreement.
"We're always going to reach out to the hospital, to the Cleveland Clinic, to negotiate. Always" Higgins said. "But, until then, we'll be out here 24 hours a day, seven days a week" picketing.
