USC Verdugo Hills Hospital reaches tentative contract agreement with SEIU

By Mark Kellam

Feb. 5, 2016 4:05 PM PT

USC Verdugo Hills Hospital has reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract with the Service Employees International Union.

Union members are expected to vote on the contract within the next week. If ratified, the contract will be in effect through January 2019.

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“Our agreement includes annual wage increases, additional paid time off and stronger financial support for additional training and education,” said Keith Hobbs, the hospital’s chief executive, in a statement. “It serves the best interests of our employees while allowing us to operate efficiently in the increasingly competitive health care marketplace.”

The union, which includes certified nursing assistants and lab technicians, represents 204 of the hospital’s 677 employees. The hospital has been in negotiations with the union since November.

Mark Kellam, mark.kellam@latimes.com

Twitter: @LAMarkKellam

Mark Kellam

Mark Kellam was city editor of the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader. He joined Times Community News in July 2011 as the business-politics reporter and was promoted to city editor in January 2013. Previously, he was an editor at the Los Angeles Daily News and managing editor at Champion Newspapers in Chino, Calif. Prior to that, he was an editor at Amos Suburban Newspapers in Dayton, Ohio, for several years. Kellam holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University.