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Home  News Latest PMC employees vote to go union
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PMC employees vote to go union |
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
The Service Employees International Union managed to convince two more Pondera Medical Center employees to vote “yes” to a union than vote “no” in an election held last Thursday at the hospital, announced Rick Palagi, Interim CEO on Monday.
Palagi informed the I-O, “The voting unit of non-professional employees as the SEIU refers to the hospital staff members who are in jobs that will now be represented by the union make up about 60 full-time and part-time employees.
Fifty-four employees cast their ballot, with 26 voting no to a union and 28 voting yes for union representation.
“Thursday was not a happy day at the hospital. We are truly saddened that a few of our well meaning employees were led to believe that being represented by this international, outside presence was necessary,” said Palagi.
He went on to add, “We were hoping that our newly energized management team and a committed board of trustees would get the chance to do our jobs without the overlay of this kind of organization.”
The hospital has recently turned over several key management positions including the CEO.
This always unsettles everybody and makes employees anxious, according to Palagi, a Kalispell Regional Medical Center senior administrator, who was asked by the PMC board of trustees to serve as interim administrator and help recruit a new, long term administrator for the facility.
The CEO search process is well underway.
“One thing I can say for sure, he said, “is that all of our employees from top to bottom care deeply about providing the best patient care we can to our community. Regardless of an individual’s position about unions, it will not affect our team from this goal.”
At some time in the future, negotiations between the union and the hospital will begin. According to experts, this negotiation can take quite a long time, in some cases up to a year.
Palagi said he doesn’t anticipate that these negotiations will change hospital’s commitment to reviewing the policies and practices that cover all the hospital staff including those now in the union.
According to federal law, employees can choose to de-certify union representation by the same process the union was certified. This process is one that is initiated by employees covered by the union, not management.
“The work that we had begun and were forced to put on hold during this election campaign will begin again. Our goal is to provide the best work environment we are able to that keeps and recruits quality employees,” he said.
Palagi noted that the hospital has some financial and operational challenges.
A complete assessment is being conducted to review and improve every aspect of the hospital.
“The advent of this union will present another level of complication to deal with, but will not change our direction,” Palagi said.
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