Nearly 2,200 nurses, medical assistants, social workers, therapists and other front-line health care workers will strike from Monday, Aug. 23 to Friday, Aug. 27.

"We're standing up for affordable family health care," said SEIU Local 1199 spokesman Carter Wright. "We understand health care is costing more and we're willing to pay our share, but the cuts that Group Health is demanding are massive."

In contract negotiations with the union, Group Health has proposed increasing the cost to workers for health benefits. Group Health employees covered by the union contract now get health benefits with no premiums or deductibles, and $5 copays for office visits and prescriptions - or, as Group Health officials describe it, "virtually free."

The company has proposed increasing copayments to $15, instituting deductibles and charging premiums on a sliding scale: 1 percent of base pay for an individual worker; 2 percent for a worker and a spouse, domestic partner or children; and 3 percent for a worker, spouse/domestic partner, and children.

For someone who makes $30,000 a year, the full family coverage would cost $75 in monthly premiums.

"Group Health is committed to promoting affordability of health care for the people we serve," said Chief Operating Officer Scott Armstrong. "Asking this group of employees to contribute a fair share of medical benefits is one small way of ensuring our patients' health care remains affordable."

Armstrong said most Group Health patients already pay premiums, as do most of the organization's 8,500 employees, himself included.

Diane Sosne, a nurse and president of SEIU Local 1199, said the company's proposal would cost some workers more than they could afford, and some would end up uninsured.

"They made this argument - 'everyone else is doing it so we should do it too,' " Sosne said. "They want to be part of the race to the bottom."

The union represents a wide range of Group Health workers, from nurses making $70,000 a year to custodians making $24,000.

Both Armstrong and Sosne said they hope to avert the strike by reaching a compromise next week. If the workers do strike, it would affect Group Health clinics and hospitals across Washington state, with three exceptions - inpatient care at Eastside Hospital in Redmond, and clinics in Spokane and northern Idaho.

Federal law requires health care workers to give employers 10 days notice before striking. Group Health nurses went on strike for 39 days in 1989.

Armstrong said Group Health will try to keep patients informed and minimize disruptions for them.

Group Health Cooperative, a nonprofit based in Seattle, provides health care coverage and services to 540,000 members in Washington and northern Idaho.