Yesterday, on February 8, 2022, our team meet with management for our seventh joint bargaining session. We provided management with comprehensive counters on almost every open issue at the table, including our remaining economic proposals. Since management took most of the day to form a response to our economics, we were initially hopefully that they would come back to us with a reasonable counter. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case at all. 

Management provided an economic counter that was very similar to their initial proposal and was nowhere close to what we had put across the table. The wages they are proposing (which they have claimed “meet the market”) are still way too low. On top of this they rejected virtually every one of the other proposals we made on economics, which included:

• Increases to our Preceptor Pay, Call Back Pay, Certification Pay, Lead Pay, Standby Pay, Weekend Differentials, and Evening differentials 

• Increases retirement plan matching funds

• The removal of all “ghost steps” on our wage matrix

• A sizable retention bonus that would be offered to everyone

• An erasure of all “debt” related to negative sick bank balances acquired over the course of the pandemic 

• A guarantee that the employer would provide pay for anyone forced to stay home after a work-related exposure to communicable diseases

• Our proposals that ensured promotions to a higher job classification level (i.e. ST I to ST 2, RT I to RT2, ect) would be accessible to everyone and that their years of experience would be fully credited when moving up

• An increase to our Per Diem premium

• Our reduced cost parking plan

• Guarantees that every union member would see a step increase every year

• Guarantees that our benefits cannot change without our consent

• Increased Bereavement Leave time

• Improvements to our Sick Time and Vacation plans

• And many others

If management believes their proposed pitiful wage increases alone are enough to fix the staffing crisis, they are delusional. Our next contract needs to include significantly higher wage increases as well as real, tangible improvements to the other economic factors that affect our take home pay. An industry leading, holistic approach is the only way for us to truly end the staffing crisis. 

Yesterday’s session showed us that our team’s fears were justified: management is completely out of touch with what we as union workers need. It’s clear that our words at the bargaining table alone aren’t enough to get through to them. 

It’s time we give management a reality check. We, as the workers that keep Seattle Children’s Hospital running, need to start taking bold actions to show management we are willing to stand united and fight for the contract we deserve! 

Please come to our next Contract Action Team meeting on February 14 at 4:30PM.

At this meeting we will be discussing the big actions we have on the horizon and can go into detail about what we are proposing at the bargaining table. 

Our bargaining team wants to be as accessible as possible throughout this process and will begin hold “office hours” sessions periodically on evening, weekends, and other times when our coworkers may be available. To learn more about these sessions or our contract negotiations in general please call our Union Rep Christie Harris at 206-436-6606 and request to join our Slack channel. 

*Note: this is an office line and cannot receive text messages

In our bargaining session on February 17 we plan to push back hard against management and again propose the strong wages and other economic increases we need. Stay tuned for more updates, especially about upcoming actions.

“The hospital says they are expecting a contract settlement as soon as possible, but refuse to back that with any meaningful concessions. If they really think their current proposals will convince any people to stay, they are even more out of touch than we thought.”

— Madison Derksema, Pharmacy Tech

Our SCH Tech bargaining team: Matt Brabant - Respiratory Educator, Madison Derksema - Pharmacy Tech, Angela Ballard – Surgical Tech, Kellie Koenig – Ultrasound Tech, Ashley Strickland – Respiratory Transport, Tyler Schaffer – Anesthesia Tech, Tesfaldet Kidanemariam – Respiratory Therapist