“We need to stand together United and show SCH what we are worth and that we deserve market wages and standards for recruitment and retention to adequately care for our patients.”

-Tyler Schaffer, Anesthesia Tech

On March 4, our Bargaining Team met with Management for another collective bargaining session. While we were able to work together to reach some tentative agreements on critical non-economic issues, even Management acknowledged that we are still very far apart on economics.

Our team proposed an economic counter which retains our priorities of market leading wages, premiums, and differentials, as well as the other economic issues that affects our total compensation such as parking costs, vacation time caps, sick bank balances, our health insurance costs, and our retirement plans. This is in stark contrast to Management’s recent proposals which amount to little more than just inadequate wage increases.

Our team knows we need strong, market leading wages increases as well as improvements to the rest of our economic issues if we are going to stop losing more of our coworkers every single day.

In order to get Management to understand the urgency of addressing all of these issues, we need to act! We have recently released a petition which clearly outlines what we need in our next contract and why we need it. If each of us along with all of our coworkers, friends, and family members are able to sign, it will send a powerful message to Management which they can’t ignore: We need a fair contract that creates real change and puts an end to the staffing crisis.

Please take a moment to sign our contract electronically. The petition is also available in paper form for members to sign. Contact our Bargaining or Contract Action Team members if you would like to sign it that way instead.

With our coworkers and allies behind us, we hope that in our next session on March 16, Management will provide a real response to our economic proposals. Stay tuned for more updates following that session.

If you have any questions about bargaining or want to learn more about how you can help our team at the table, please call our Union Rep Christie Harris at 206-436-6606.

Bargaining Team: Matt Brabant (RT Educator), Madison Derksema (Pharmacy Tech), Angela Ballard (Surgery Tech), Kellie Koenig (Ultrasound Tech), Tayler Schaffer (Anesthesia Tech), Ashley Strickland (Transport Team), Tesfaldet Kidanemariam (Respiratory Therapist)