On January 27, we met with Providence RadiantCare Management and reached an agreement on several non-economic articles. Management agreed to using job classification seniority in case of a lay-off, schedules can only be modified with mutual consent, and leaves of absence benefits cannot be changed during the life of the contract.

Most of our bargaining session focused on wages and compensation. Providence’s last proposal provides at least a 1.5% increase upon ratification. We believe the initial increase is not enough given that our unit has gone without a wage increase for almost two years and our wage rates are below the market. Providence continues telling us that they only consider clinic wage rates for our unit, but the reality is that Providence is competing with hospitals and clinics for caregivers. They should be looking at hospital and clinic rates!

Additionally, Providence told us that they are not interested in placing everyone at the appropriate wage rate commensurate to their experience. Under their proposal, a Radiation Therapist with two years of experience would be placed on the base step and a Radiation Therapist with six years of experience would be placed on Step 1. We told Management multiple times that many of us feel that there is an inequity in pay within our unit and their proposal will continue the inequity. We believe that we all deserve a competitive wage rate and caregivers with more experience should be paid more.

Our next bargaining session will be on February 1.

It is clear to us that in order to move them towards an equitable wage proposal, we will have to take collective action. Please continue wearing a sticker daily and stay tuned for future workplace actions.