Enloe employees to picket

Off-duty service workers at Enloe Medical Center will be carrying signs and doing “informational picketing” in front of the hospital all day Friday to call attention to what they say is an unfair wage-and-benefits offer from hospital management.

The group’s union, SEIU/United Healthcare West, and the hospital have been negotiating their first contract for 11 months and have agreed on much, but they’re at loggerheads over the all-important pay and benefits. The union came in seeking a 49 percent raise over three years, while the hospital offered 9 percent. Closing that 40 percent gap is proving difficult.

At the heart of the disagreement is the question of which hospitals will be used for comparative wage analysis. The union wants only union hospitals, including some in Sacramento, while Enloe wants to include some that are non-union.