More than 400 frontline health care workers at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield plan to go on strike this week.
More than 400 frontline healthcare workers at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield plan to go on strike this week.
KLCC
The workers include housekeepers, certified nursing assistants, MRI technicians, and more. They say hospital management is interfering with their rights as union members.
SEIU Local 49 members are working on a new contract. The union says understaffing, high turnover, low wages, lack of affordable health care and lack of adequate COVID-19 protections are putting workers and patients at risk.
The union says McKenzie-Willamette isn’t paying competitive wages and will be charging more for healthcare coverage. And the union is protesting hospital plans to outsource some services.
The strike is set to go from Tuesday, Oct. 5th until Thursday, Oct. 7th.