Nearly 5,000 healthcare workers of 1199SEIU have voted to ratify a new three-year labor agreement with Steward Health Care, the largest community hospital network in Massachusetts.

The pact covers a broad range of service, clerical, and technical employees at eight of the Steward hospitals, including: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton; Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton; Carney Hospital in Dorchester; Quincy Medical Center; Norwood Hospital; Holy Family Hospital in Methuen; Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill; and Morton Hospital in Taunton.

The agreement announced today is the second master contract that 1199SEIU members have successfully negotiated with Steward management. Workers at seven of the Steward Hospitals voted to join 1199SEIU in rolling elections between 2009 and 2012 in what was the largest successful organizing drive by a Massachusetts labor union since tens of thousands of homecare workers voted to join 1199SEIU in 2007.

“It is great to have a voice and protections. With our union, we are moving forward and we are on a good path with this new contract,” said Donna Bryce, a unit secretary at Morton Hospital, the facility where workers most recently voted to join the union.

The new pact announced today includes a guaranteed two percent increase each year for three years, totaling a six percent increase during the life of the contract for 1199 members. The new contract will also continue the standard set in the prior master contract of ensuring all of the lower-wage hospital workers covered by the pact, such as dietary and housekeeping staff, receive at least a living wage.

The deal guarantees quality, affordable health insurance coverage for union members and a number of improved job security provisions, including corporate successor language that would keep the terms of the contract in effect in the event of a sale or merger of the system or individual hospitals.

Joint labor-management projects aimed at improving patient care and worker education opportunities will continue, including the jointly administered 1199SEIU Training & Upgrading Fund which creates career pathways for healthcare workers through education counseling and college tuition benefits.

Healthcare workers at each of the eight hospitals covered by the pact elected a bargaining committee of their peers that met with a delegation of management representatives from each hospital. Over the course of 15 bargaining sessions, the sides hammered out details of a master agreement covering workers at eight Steward hospitals, along with eight individual “side letters” of agreement relevant to facility-specific issues.

“The bargaining committee did a fabulous job negotiating the contract. We won job security, pay increases, and have great, affordable healthcare coverage,” said Rodney Mohammed, a bio-medical technician at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.