As striking service workers rallied Wednesday on Orleans Street in front of John Hopkins Hospital, a hospital official said that the East Baltimore medical institution can't raise wages too much without eliminating other jobs. "A key concern is making sure we can offer competitive wages and be fair to all of our employees while we continue to preserve jobs," said Bonnie Windsor, the hospital's vice president of human resources. "You can only give so much if you want to preserve jobs. There is a finite amount of money." The hospital's first public comments about the contract dispute came the same day that the workers, members of labor union 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, began a three-day strike.
