Healthcare workers need affordable healthcare. That’s the message we sent loud and clear to Providence CEO Rod Hochman as more than 50 SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members from around the state, including Providence St. Peter and Providence/Swedish Medical Center workers, marched on Providence’s corporate headquarters.
We brought a message that Providence needs to restore affordable employee healthcare, settle the unfair labor practice charges, and bargain in good faith. We talked with a corporate employee and our community partners including the Puget Sound Advocates for Retiree Action and the Washington Community Action Network left a letter for Hochman calling for restoration of health benefits.
Providence is a highly profitable corporation and it paid its CEO nearly $4.5 million in 2012. Yet in January, Providence slashed employee healthcare, replacing it with a high deductible health plan with deductibles of more than 10% of many employees’ incomes.
The community is continuing to call for Providence to restore employee healthcare. Pastor John Rosenberg from the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Olympia recently published this column calling on Providence to return to its charitable roots.
Read more about our campaign for affordable healthcare at Providence here.
