Petaluma nurses, St. Joseph in contract dispute

The union that represents nurses at Petaluma Valley Hospital and the facility’s operator have hit an impasse in negotiations over a new contract.

In recent weeks, the Petaluma Staff Nurse Partnership union and operator St. Joseph Health have ramped up public outreach, placing dueling political advertisements in the Argus-Courier to explain their argument. The union is planning an Aug. 22 hospital-wide informational picket, according to Jim Goerlich, president of the Petaluma Staff Nurse Partnership.

Complicating contract negotiations is a state process to combine St. Joseph’s and Adventist Health’s Northern California operations into a new joint operating company, a process that has also delayed a new lease agreement for Petaluma Valley Hospital.

Goerlich said contract negotiations with St. Joseph have stalled over a union demand for minimum staffing and dependable schedules, and he said that money has yet to be discussed.

“They’re coming after our ability to make sure we’re staffing appropriately,” he said. “We haven’t even put money on the table, and we haven’t had a wage increase in five years.”

Christina Harris, a spokesperson for St. Joseph Health, said that the operator has met with nurses 36 times to negotiate the new contract and has reached agreement on many issues. She said the union has failed to respond to contract changes that St. Joseph has proposed.

“Many of these proposals include routine updates to contract language,” she said in a statement to the Argus-Courier. “This delay has prevented us from moving onto discussions around compensation and benefits and is delaying well-deserved wage increases for our nurses.”

Harris said St. Joseph has asked to include a federal mediator in the negotiations, something that the union has so far refused.

“Our experience successfully bargaining contracts for unions in the past has shown us that mediation and direct dialogue are a proven way to streamline negotiations, bring resolution and achieve closure,” she said.

Goerlich said that negotiations have not progressed to the point where a mediator would be useful.

“The problem with a mediator is they usually come in when there’s money on the table,” he said. “Right now, the things on the table, they are not related to money and they are not negotiable. There’s nothing to mediate.”

He said that contract language St. Joseph has proposed around staffing would make it difficult to recruit and retain nurses to work at the hospital.

“If what they are proposing was to become part of our contract, good nurses will leave and retaining nurses will be impossible,” he said. “No one would nor should work under those kinds of conditions or want to work for an employer who wants to treat them that way. This would create a continually less than safe environment in PVH.”

As contract negotiations continue, a separate process is playing out at the state Attorney General’s office to combine St. Joseph and Adventist Health. It is expected that the new joint operating company will bid to take over the Petaluma Valley Hospital lease, which expired in 2017.

The Petaluma Health Care District owns the hospital and St. Joseph has operated the facility since 1997. Any new lease agreement would have to be approved in a public vote.

Harris said the joint operating company is currently under regulatory review.

“Over the past month, the Attorney General hosted a series of public hearings in the communities served by both organizations,” she said. “We expect to hear back from the Attorney General’s office in the next few months.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)