1,600 workers approve labor pact with AGH

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

About 1,600 workers at Allegheny General Hospital voted this week to approve a three-year union contract that provides annual raises of at least 3 percent, increased staffing and provisions to freeze their health care costs.

SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the Service Employees International Union’s health care division, announced the deal Friday. It covers staff at the North Side hospital, owned by Allegheny Health Network. Unionized staff includes nursing assistants, X-ray techs, nuclear medicine techs, respiratory therapists, MRI techs, surgical techs, hospital housekeepers, food service workers, medical records clerks and others.

They voted in 2015 to join the labor organization in one of the largest union elections in recent memory. Last week, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania announced a new contract for about 170 nurses at UPMC McKeesport.

The AGH contract requires hospital management to create additional positions for nursing assistants, ultrasound technologists, nuclear medicine technologists, CT technologists and others, according to the union. It also freezes health care costs for three years and reduces premiums for lower-wage workers, the union said.

Allegheny Health Network would not comment on details.

“We are pleased to have reached fair and competitive agreements,” AHN spokesman Dan Laurent said in a written statement. “The contracts ratified this week are reflective of our organization’s commitment to negotiating in good faith to achieve a positive outcome for our employees and for the hospital, and were driven by a collective desire on both sides to do what’s best for our patients and the communities we serve.”

Across the state, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania represents 45,000 nurses, direct care workers and other staff in hospitals, nursing facilities, home and community-based services and state facilities.