Workers at Oceanside, Calif.-based Tri-City Medical Center, represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, gathered this week to obtain signatures to place a proposed salary-capping initiative on the November 2016 ballot, according to a Seaside Courier report.
Here are six things to know about the proposed initiative.
1. Under the proposed initiative, no executive at the publicly funded hospital could have annual earnings higher than $250,000 year, and the salaries of the 10 highest-paid administrators would be published each year on the Tri-City Healthcare District's website, according to the report.
2. The proposed law would be adjusted accordingly for inflation.
3. Unionized workers said the proposed ballot measure would help the hospital rein in costs, and be able to spend more on patient care rather than executive salaries, according to the Seaside Courier.
4. However, critics contend that the ballot initiative would stand in the way of the hospital recruiting, and retaining, top-quality talent, according to the report.
5. The proposed ballot initiative comes as Tri-City Medical Center is in negotiations with the union. The hospital did not comment directly on the negotiations or proposed ballot initiative, except to say negotiations with the union are ongoing, and the hospital "negotiates at the table, not in the media." Hospital workers have previously protested an alleged plan to outsource hundreds of jobs, according to the report. Hospital administrators deny that claim.
6. Hospital workers had hoped to obtain 14,000 signatures in 180 days.
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