Food service workers at Norwalk Hospital are ready to go on strike, months after previously saying their employer Morrison Healthcare slow-walked employee contract negotiations.
Dave Hannon, president of Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199 (CHCA), NUHHCE, said the workers prepared to walk off the job, after authorizing a strike due to what they said was Morrison Healthcare going back on its word to reinstate annual evaluations and pay raises.
“They reneged on it in writing, and we filed an unfair labor practice charge, and so this is really the reason why,” Hannon said.
The authorization vote is just the latest sign of increasingly frustrated food service workers who say their employer isn’t working in good faith to negotiate a mutually acceptable contract.
Workers previously said Morrison offered paltry pay increases. But while a strike is now a possibility, Hannon said no date has been set.
Hannon said there’s still time to avoid a strike, but that responsibility ultimately lies with Morrison.
“It's a negotiable item as far as I'm concerned, but it's all going to depend on what Morrison does,” Hannon said.
Morrison Healthcare on Tuesday said that it has a "long history of listening" to workers and "working productively" with unions.
"We look forward to continuing to meet and bargain in good faith with Connecticut Health Care Associates," Morrison Healthcare said in a statement.
The union has been negotiating a contract for close to a year, according to Hannon.
Hannon said a potential strike is increasingly likely if negotiations continue to get bogged down.
“The longer they flip-flop on these things that they promised us, and the longer it takes for them to finish the contract negotiations, I think the greater the likelihood that they're going to get fed up and decide to walk out,” Hannon said.
Hotel service workers in Greenwich and New Haven recently ended strikes over low pay and skimpy benefits.
