Accept offer or strike — hospital workers to vote
Union, Maui Health reach tentative agreement after three days of talks
Workers at three Maui County hospitals who voted last week to go on strike must now decide whether to accept the “last, best and final offer” from Maui Health or walk off the job starting Wednesday morning.
Maui Health and the United Public Workers union that represents nearly 500 employees at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital and Lanai Community Hospital came to a tentative agreement on Friday after three days of mediation.
“The solidarity shown by the membership in the strike vote was instrumental in achieving a fair LBFO (last, best and final offer) for ratification,” UPW Hawaii State Director Kalani Werner told The Maui News on Friday evening. “The LBFO represents a significant victory for our members and is a major step forward in our ongoing fight for fair treatment and compensation.”
Ratification meetings have been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, allowing members to learn more about the offer and ask questions. The final decision is ultimately up to members — a “yes” vote will accept the offer, while a “no” vote means they will move forward with the strike, Werner said.
“Today, after several sessions of good faith bargaining, Maui Health and UPW have reached a tentative agreement,” Maui Health said in a statement on Friday evening. “We are pleased to have come to a tentative agreement and are encouraging all UPW represented employees to vote this Monday or Tuesday. If the tentative agreement is ratified, the strike scheduled to begin Wednesday February 22 will not commence.”
UPW’s members at the three hospitals include nurses’ aides, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, cooks and other workers. The union said 97.6 percent of members who voted supported going on strike after previous contract negotiations and mediation failed. Workers have lost confidence in hospital management after nine months of trying to work with the employer and have been operating under a contract extension since June 30, the UPW said.
In December, UPW members held an informational picket along Kaahumanu Avenue to raise concerns over proposed wage increases, which followed a protest in November by Maui Health workers under a different union who were also concerned about pay and understaffing.
“These workers deserve to be paid fair wages after laboring through the pandemic,
enduring staffing shortages and dealing with soaring inflation,” Werner said in a news release Thursday as mediation dragged on.
Maui Health has said that recruiting health care professionals continues to be a challenge throughout the industry, and that staffing shortages are critical among Hawaii hospitals. It said it’s been working to recruit workers, partner with local
schools and establish inhouse training programs.
“The solutions to these complex issues will take collaboration with colleagues throughout the health care industry and the state, with the goal to find a sustainable pathway for stability in the industry,” Maui Health said in December. “In the short term, at Maui Health, we will continue to meet and collaborate with our union partners to work in earnest towards a fair agreement for our employees.”
The news of the tentative
agreement between Maui Health and UPW came one day after Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers announced that they had reached a tentative agreement that could bring to an end a nearly six-month strike of mental health care clinicians statewide.
The clinicians are voting this weekend on whether to accept the agreement or resume picketing.