FORUM HEALTH Hospital workers ratify new contract with raises

Forum will continue to pay all of the workers' health care premiums.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
and PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- Pay raises of more than 7 percent over three years and prescription benefits for retirees are among perks provided under the new contract Forum Health employees ratified Tuesday.
Members of District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union voted 744-87 in favor of the three-year pact.
The union represents about 1,500 service and maintenance workers, licensed practical nurses, housekeeping and laundry workers, pharmacists, physical therapists and technicians at Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.
Happy with it
"It's a very good contract. We were able to move people forward in a way that has never happened before," said Becky Williams, the union's Ohio area director, who recommended ratification by the membership. "We made improvements throughout this entire document."
"We didn't lose anything. We got things, and it's a very good contract," said Linda Bowers of Youngstown, a nurse's aide in the neonatal unit at Tod Babies' and Children's Hospital on the Northside campus.
Members will see wage increases of 2.7 percent the first and second years of the agreement and 2 percent the third year.
There's also a "me too" clause, Williams said, which gives the union a right to higher raises in the third year if another union negotiates more than a 2 percent increase that year.
District 1199 represents "dozens and dozens" of job categories with just as many salary levels, Williams said. Wages before the raises range from about $8 to about $30 per hour.
Under the new agreement, retirees will get prescription cards, which will allow them to buy prescription drugs at Forum Health's cost. A drug that retails for $130 might cost Forum only $50, she explained, and retirees would pay the lesser amount. "That is extremely significant for people that are going to retire," Williams said.
Similar jobs
Wage parity between workers with similar job descriptions at TMH and Northside will be achieved in four years, Williams said. Those affected will see their hourly pay rates increase in yearly increments.
Union leaders were especially concerned about parity for about 600 dietary, housekeeping, surgery aides, laundry and maintenance workers at Northside who earned considerably less than their counterparts at TMH. Those TMH workers are represented by another union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Williams said the parity increases will add $3 an hour or more for some workers, in addition to the across-the-board pay raises.
Forum will continue to pay all of the workers' health care premiums.
The new agreement also expands funding for continuing education and tuition reimbursement, Will-iams said.
The union originally had seven contracts with Forum, but the two sides agreed to bring all 1,500 workers under a single bargaining agreement.
Registered nurses at both Forum hospitals are represented by different unions.