Tobey Hospital employees braved 20 degree temperatures to wave signs and chant while picketing for higher wages on Thursday, Jan. 9.

Organized by 1199 Service Employees International Union, both union and non-union workers arrived in force near the emergency room entrance on Main Street.

Picketers voiced complaints over short-staffing and low wages for hospital support staff, such as safety sitters, housekeepers and surgical technologists.

Chief negotiator for the union Kerry Brown, said Southcoast Health has been in negotiations with employees since July 2024 over an “across-the-board” percentage wage increase.

Workers are asking for a 3% increase, Southcoast Health has offered 2%, Brown said.

Picketers said low wages have contributed to staffing issues that have persisted since the Covid pandemic.

“We’ve been working short for like two years,” said lab unit coordinator Wanda Johnson. “We have some employees that are still only making 15 something [dollars] an hour.”

Johnson, who has worked at Tobey Hospital for 42 years, said support staff positions have been lacking personnel since the pandemic.

She said many employees leave Tobey Hospital for Southcoast Health’s larger St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford because similar jobs there pay $2 more an hour.

“They have not been able to hire people because the wages are not significant enough for people to thrive,” said union organizer Marlishia Aho.

Picketers described themselves as the “front line employees” who are with patients for the majority of their time at the hospital.

Mary MacLeod, a respiratory therapist who has worked at Tobey Hospital for 35 years, said employees like her are the reason patients say they love the hospital.

“They can pay their CEOs big money and all that, but what about the little guys who do all the work,” MacLeod said.

Negotiators for employees holding signs on Thursday said they are hopeful an agreement can be reached soon.

“I think they’re insulting us with the 2%,” Johnson said. “We want the community taken care of and we just think Southcoast should give us a lousy 3%.”

Representatives from Southcoast Health wrote in an email that the organization has completed 17 “good faith” bargaining sessions with the support staff union. 

“As a not-for-profit community health system, we remain committed to reaching an agreement that includes fair, equitable and sustainable wage increases for both the hospital and our staff,” representatives wrote. “We greatly appreciate all of our employees and their ongoing dedication to caring for our community.”