Former Mercy Iowa City workers say UIHC is threatening pay, seniority

You probably heard about the very public bankruptcy of Iowa City’s *other* hospital, Mercy Iowa City, and how around 1,000 jobs were saved when the University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC) agreed to buy Mercy, changing the hospital’s name to UI Health Care Medical Center Downtown.

But you may not have heard about what’s been happening behind the scenes to those health-care workers navigating the transition.

Mercy workers officially joined UIHC on Jan. 31 of this year, becoming part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the process.

But before they could be represented by the union, workers received an offer letter in the mail from their new employer, according to Chris Russell, an organizer with SEIU Minnesota and Iowa.

They were told the seniority, vacation, and sick time they’d built up at Mercy would be gone, and they would be on a nine-month probationary period. Some even saw a pay cut of $2-$4 per hour. They were given three days to sign it.

“It was kind of a slap in the face,” one worker, a registered nurse who worked for Mercy for over a year, told Starting Line.

They noted their offer was $5 less per hour. “Our hands were tied … There was no place to go if you wanted to stay local.”

Another registered nurse who had been at Mercy for over two years told Starting Line they were offered $5,000 less per year.

“So many threatened to quit that our manager went to UIHC and said, ‘You can’t offer these paychecks; I’m going to lose my entire unit,'” the second worker said.

Both workers said they wanted to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs.

Under pressure, UIHC sent workers a new offer letter—but it only covers that unit, a fraction of the total workers they’re bringing in.

Russell told me that they’d tried working with UIHC leadership, including CEO Bradley Haws, for months. Now, they’re hoping a public pressure campaign will start those discussions for the rest of the workers.

“We’re in a shortage,” Russell said of health-care workers. “We want to keep these workers here in Iowa City. We don’t want to force them to have to move away from this area and the state. And that’s what people are doing, because they’re not being treated well.”

Want to help? If you’ve ever been a UIHC patient, show your solidarity to former Mercy workers by sending a letter to UIHC’s CEO here.

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about UIHC workers getting jerked around by their employer, which by the way is overseen by the Iowa Board of Regents. (At least they won!).

What they’re saying: This recent Reddit thread about UIHC’s pay scale is… illuminating.