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Seton Coastside management, employees work on deal

By Greg Thomas [ greg@hmbreview.com ]
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, Aug 05, 2009 - 04:22:34 pm PDT

Health care workers at Seton Medical Center Coastside are continuing a long-standing negotiation for employee contracts through Thursday in San Jose.

Bargaining teams representing SEIU United Healthcare Workers and their employer, Daughters of Charity Health System, have been meeting periodically for the past 15 months to hash out an amicable settlement. Union employees at the Moss Beach medical center have been without contracts since May 2008.

Wednesday and Thursday, workers from five medical centers around the state are sitting down at the table with Daughters of Charity negotiators in hopes of finalizing contract terms for thousands of health care employees in the Daughters of Charity system. The negotiations follow informational pickets last week in front of the system’s medical centers in Moss Beach, Daly City, Los Angeles, San Jose and Gilroy.

In the past eight months, the two parties have come to tentative agreements in several areas of dispute, said Nancy Messer, a nurse at Seton Coastside and a member of the union’s bargaining team. However, battles over wage increases, insurance and benefit costs, and retroactive pay for the period workers have been without contracts still remain unresolved, she said.

“We’re down to the most important things … it’s all down to money,” Messer said.

Courtney Conlon, a spokeswoman for Seton Medical Centers in Daly City and Moss Beach, said management is working diligently to establish a workable contract soon.

“We are committed to bringing these negotiations to a successful conclusions in the next few days,” she said.

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