Seattle Children’s Hospital - Bargaining Update

“Even though things are looking optimistic this is not a time for us as to back down and settle! We as union members need to continue with our unity and show our strength even more so with current staffing shortages and ongoing health crisis.”

-Tyler Schaffer Anesthesia Tech

Yesterday, Tuesday January 4, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our third bargaining session. We presented almost all of our remaining non-economic language proposals and provided counters to many of what Management gave back to us. This means that the way is now clear for us to begin negotiating economic issues next session.

Management presented the diversity and inclusion policies Seattle Children’s is implementing. While we like the idea of what they told us they were working on, we know that their words and promises only hold weight if they commit to being held accountable for addressing the significant equity issues the hospital continues to face daily. Management has to practice what they preach and accept our trailblazing equity and inclusion proposals— which would force them to be accountable to us as workers, and make sure we are part of the decision-making process. We hope to receive a positive response to this proposal next session.

Overall, we were happy to see that Management seems to have changed their tune, doing away with their unfair package proposals and instead presenting individual counters on most of the outstanding proposals we made. Management even went as far as to finally acknowledge that we are in a massive staffing crisis. We know that fixing this requires bold wage increases and other economic incentives, so we again hope that Management’s words translate into real commitments in our contract.

This shift is the direct result of the strong actions, like our recent sticker-ups, that we are taking in the field. Management is finally starting to see we are all unified and willing to take bold actions get a fair contract. We need to keep up the pressure by participating in more upcoming actions, making sure coworkers are connected to what is happening with our negotiations by following our Instagram (@schworkers), and joining our Contract Action Team (CAT). There’s too much at stake to sit on the sidelines!

Call your Union Rep Christie today @ (206) 436-6606, to ask how you can join our CAT, find out how you can get more connected with our campaign updates, and learn what you can do to help empower your Bargaining Team at the table.

Our next negotiations session will be on Tuesday January 20. Keep an eye out for future updates and a summary of our proposals.

Bargaining Team: Matt Brabant - Respiratory Educator; Madison Derksema - Pharm Tech; Angela Ballard – Surgical Tech; Kellie Koenig - Ultrasound Tech; Ashley Strickland - Respiratory Transport; Tyler Schaffer - Anesthesia Tech; Tesfaldet Kidanemariam - Respiratory Therapist

RSVP to our online Contract Action Meeting tomorrow:
Thursday, January 6
11 AM
https://secure.everyaction.com/zqqN-XRxcEemWs4O72fcQg2
RSVP to your meeting, and you'll get the details for your online meeting emailed to you.

We will be going into more detail about what happened at the table and how we can participate