Swedish Medical Center's plan to retool their benefits and new retirement plans have been met with great opposition from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Swedish is one of the last of its kind to offer a traditional pension plan.

"The reality is that all of the other hospitals in this area all made these changes in the mid-80s to early 90s," said Ron Sperling, Swedish's chief financial officer. "That's when everyone started seeing the fact that people weren't coming to work and staying for their whole career-people are mobile, people make changes."

The new proposed retirement plan would make use of a 401(k) system where employees manage their own finances and the hospital works with employees to match funds. Current employees would be able to choose between the current plan and the 401(k), but new employees would have to make use of the new plan.

Though the change to the pension plan does not affect current employees, the union has concerns that the split between current employees who have the old pension plan and new employees who are forced to adopt the 401(k) package, will create a rift between workers who do the same job but receive unequal benefits.

"Employees doing the same work would be divided into separate and unequal groups, dividing us and opening the door for Swedish to completely eliminate the secure pension for all of us in the near future," a statement reads on SEIU1199nw.org.

In addition to revamping the retirement package, Swedish also proposes to do away with their free health coverage benefits. Individuals would pay $36 a month for coverage, and families would be pay $100 a month, under the new plan.

"It's still very, very cheap," said Sperling. "The average cost for a family coverage plan in Seattle is between $250 and $275 a month. So $100 is still much more favorable to the employee than most other employers in Seattle are offering."

Swedish opponents claim that the benefits package and retirement plan currently offered is what draws the best employees to the hospital and keeps them there.

"A secure pension has been a powerful magnet for recruitment and retention for Swedish," said Diane Sosne, RN, president of SEIU's 1199NW chapter. "Eliminating it would be a short-sighted decision that would put Swedish's bottom line ahead of the need to maintain a high quality team of caregivers."

Sperling said the changes would still leave Swedish with a competitive edge over the competition.

"Today, we provide better pay and better benefits than any other Seattle-area hospital," said Sperling. "The reason that we do it and the reason we want to do it is because we want to attract the very best. When all of this is done we'll still have a better pay structure and we'll still have better benefits than other hospitals, but they'll be a cut above, they'll be just a little better so that we can be more competitive."

In response to the proposed changes, the 1199NW chapter of the SEIU held a rally on August 16 near the First Hill branch, and at the Ballard branch to picket the new plan. Those in attendance included Mayor Greg Nickels and House Speaker Frank Chopp.

Rally attendants said they need their voice heard because Swedish is unwilling to talk with the union.

"One of the things the union has always had with Swedish is a good collaborative working relationship and it's been very different with these negotiations," said nurse Cheri Puetz. "It's the first time that we feel they're not willing to talk either."

Swedish, however, claims the converse to be untrue.

"We're willing to stay at the table and discuss this," said Sperling. "The union has to be willing to talk about these things and so far they have not."

With both sides of the table claiming that the other is not willing to talk, neither is able to speculate on a time frame for negotiations to end.