MORGANTOWN — WVU Medicine employees who are members of LiUNA Local 814 have a new contract.
WVU Medicine told The Dominion Post that union members ratified a new 39-month collective bargaining agreement between Local 814 and WVUH, which lasts through March 31, 2023.
WVU Medicine said Local 814 represents several hundred WVUH employees – the count was 1,600-plus last September – who work in environmental services, dietary, transport, sterile processing, materials and laundry, along with support associates and clinical associates. All but a few work at Ruby Memorial Hospital.
Keon Shim, acting business manager of Local 814, said the vote to ratify the new contract was 363 to 286. “Under new management, Local 814 was able to negotiate certain benefits for this bargaining unit that the Local had previously been unable to obtain, such as pull pay for some job classifications, call pay for more employee classifications than before, and raises for long-tenured employees. We are confident that this is the first of many improvements to come for Local 814.”
The union explained that pull pay refers to how much an employee receives when pulled to a different job while call pay refers to how much an employee receives while on call.
Regarding the new management, The Dominion Post previously reported that the prior contract expired on Dec. 31. An August report said that the Laborers International Union of North America had apparently removed the executive officers and board members of Local 814, while a September report indicated that LiUNA had cited West Virginia’s right-to-work law, passed in 2016, as one factor among several contributing to internal problems at the local chapter.
Contract negotiations typically commence in October, WVU Medicine said at the time.
Documents provided to The Dominion Post at the time showed that a LiUNA Special Hearing Panel said that despite the number of members, the local couldn’t afford full time representation “and is under additional pressure because of West Virginia’s right-to-work law.”
A charter revocation, which would have separated the local from LiUNA, was under consideration at the time. Neither LiUNA nor the local would elaborate at the time but Local 814 remains a part of LiUNA.
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