MultiCare Auburn Medical Center RNs

Bargaining Team: Cory Larsen, Caroline Bellinger, Kathleen Vukelich

Our member Bargaining Team met with management on August 3 and 24 to kick-off negotiations.

We are frustrated that it took so long to get the employer to agree to these initial dates, which meant negotiations began only a few days before our contract was set to expire. We have signed an extension agreement to ensure that our contract remains in place, but we shouldn’t have had to wait so long to get this process started.

We presented our first proposal to the Employer on August 3, which included proposals to improve our existing language on issues regarding staffing, charge nurse assignments, accepting extra shifts, floating, and more. We also made a proposal to add the spot bonus incentive program to our contract.

The Employer provided a response to most of our proposals on August 24. While they did agree to some proposals that were already settled during the technical bargain, they pushed back on most everything else. For example, they wanted to strip out most of language that allows for members to report staffing concerns to administration without going through the staffing committee. While the staffing committing is a strong tool, we need to preserve alternative avenues for members who are not on the committee to have their concerns addressed.

Afterwards, we gave the Employer a comprehensive economic proposal. As we were crafting this proposal, we reviewed neighboring facilities such as Valley Medical Center who are direct competitors in the labor pool. Our proposal reflects the need to increase wages enough to ensure that management can easily attract and retain high quality staff at Auburn Medical Center.

We eagerly await the Employer’s response.

Our Bargaining Team will meet with management on August 24, then again September 8, 14, 22 and 29.