Fact check: the truth behind SEIU’s big claims at Tenet
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
You may have read SEIU’s recent claims to have won “raises of up to 18% over three years” at nine California Tenet-owned hospitals.
Like most everything SEIU tells healthcare workers, those claims don’t match the facts. According to SEIU’s signed Tentative Agreements :
- The wage scale at Tenet is frozen for the first two years of SEIU’s contract and increases by 1% in the third year.
- The only workers who stand to receive a wage increase of 18% under SEIU’s contract are those who are currently paid far below the wage scale
- SEIU bargained drastically lower pay increases for per diem employees and the contract does not bring all workers up to scale by the end of the agreement.
- Workers eligible for step increases are subject to annual caps which may prevent them from receiving the full amount of their step increase.
You can read the above pages from SEIU’s signed Tentative Agreements at Tenet for yourself here.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation made more than $1.1 billion in profits in 2010—its highest profits in seven years—and Tenet predicts it will make almost $1.3 billion in profits during 2011. But instead of using Tenet’s profitability to increase the wage scale and deliver equal pay for all workers, SEIU gave Tenet millions of dollars of savings in labor costs.
This is nothing new for SEIU.
At Catholic Healthcare West, SEIU gave away the defined-benefit pension for 12,000 healthcare workers, delivering huge savings to CHW. And at the Daughters of Charity Health System, SEIU agreed to changes in job security language which have allowed the employer to lay off 400 workers.
Healthcare workers deserve to know the truth. When you get a glossy mailer from SEIU making big claims, get the facts. Visit us at NUHW.org and at KaiserUnited.org.
In unity and strength,
Jim Clifford, Therapist, Kaiser San Diego
National Union of Healthcare Workers