PRMCE RN We Must Come Together to Fight Providence, Not Each Other

As Registered Nurses, we have spent years fighting for our careers and our lives. We are all at the boiling point over Providence’s lack of leadership. The severity of our staffing concerns and the deterioration of our working conditions continue to go unaddressed. We want to give the best care to our patients and community and Providence management has failed us at every step.  

In recent months, we have led the fight for staffing legislation in Olympia, we have packed the halls of the Everett City Council, and we have prayed at vigils with the community we serve. Since May, as your union RN bargaining team, we have been fighting to win wages that are competitive with Swedish Edmonds and staffing language that can set new standards in Washington state. Now we are organizing to build the power we need to strike Providence and reform the broken healthcare system that is burning out nurses and hurting our patients.  

While we are building the support for a transformative strike, efforts have emerged to decertify our union. While we recognize there are legitimate frustrations, and a need for clearer communication and rigorous transparency, becoming an unprotected nonunion workplace is not the answer. We are working to improve vital functions of our union, and with feedback from RN coworkers, we will see that the needed improvements are made. We are committed to a process that will see our union held accountable to its members and dramatically increase participation for RNs. This will hold through our contract negotiation and beyond. We are committed to this because losing our union will put all our careers at risk. If a decertification effort were to pass, we would be at the mercy of Providence management. We would lose the rights and protections in our contract that we have fought for over the last 30 years, from when we were members of UFCW United Staff Nurses Union Local 141, to today. 

What many of those pushing decertification petitions may not know—or may not be telling their coworkers—is that after any decertification we would have to wait at least one year, by law, to reorganize with another union. During that time we would be ‘at will’ employees subject to termination at any time, for any reason. At that point, we would have to negotiate a new contract, which could take another year or more. If we lose our current protections, we are not going to be able to recover overnight the rights and benefits we have won over three decades. They would be lost to us for good. 

Nearly as important: if a decertification petition is filed, our current bargaining process immediately grinds to a halt. Providence will not bargain with us in good faith while a decertification effort is underway. Even a failed decertification vote would drain energy and momentum away from winning an improved union contract. At precisely the moment in which we must be united and working with one voice as proud Registered Nurses, a decertification effort would play right into Providence’s hands. We must come together, reject the decertification petition, and prepare to strike Providence for a fair contract that protects patients and enhances our careers.

We have reason to believe a better world is possible for RNs and our hospital. During the last five years we have built “Providence United”, a powerful coalition between SEIU 1199NW, UFCW 3000, and WSNA, the three healthcare unions in our state. Together we have taken on Providence in every hospital and taken action in solidarity with each other, including striking at Swedish and taking strike votes statewide. Working together we’ve pushed for the strongest staffing laws in Washington history. Now we are implementing the law with substantive input from frontline RNs and organizing for enforcement and accountability from hospital management.  

The unions in this coalition are 100% committed to standing in solidarity with one another in our collective fight against greedy healthcare corporations. WSNA and SEIU have pledged full support for us in our fight for a fair contract and our unions have a Unity Agreement to support one another and not support any effort to destroy what has been built over so many years. None of the three Unions will accept new members who have decertified and destroyed a contract that has been built over decades of struggle. 

Read the unity letter here: https://ufcw3000.org/s/Unity-Letter-Healthcare-Unions.pdf

As we escalate with public actions and community, political, and media outreach over the next few months, SEIU and WSNA will be supporting all actions as we prepare for a strike when our contract expires on October 30, 2023. We will have educational meetings on what it means to strike, planning financially, and getting commitments from nurses to be Strike captains for their units. We can learn from nurses in UFCW represented hospitals like Providence St. Peter’s Hospital and CHI St. Michael’s Medical Center- and from Swedish nurses with SEIU and Seattle Children’s nurses with WSNA. The best strategy and solidarity comes when we unite together- when one group of nurses take militant action- it can start a new wave of higher standards in the healthcare industry. We can lead. We can do this together.  

The real questions are- Will you join us in fighting Providence management? Will you join us in building the kind of Hospital that we can be proud of? Will you join us in protecting the lives of our loved ones? Will you join us in transforming our careers and the future of the nursing profession? Will you join us to fight for the new nurse out of Grad school that started during Covid, who only knows ratios of 6/1, and the 30-year nurse who is the heart and soul of your department?  

We have a choice to make together- and call on every nurse to sign the strike pledge, reject the decertification petition, and talk to one another respectfully and in solidarity as we take action together.  

— UFCW 3000 Nurse Bargaining Team: Stephanie Sausman, Kelli Johnson, Juan Stout, Julie Bynum, Carrie Rimel, Trevor Gjendem, Kristen Crowder  

“My Union is important to me because it is necessary for the protection of nurses and holding our employer accountable. I want a contract that fairly compensates our nurses and protects them and our patients. We need to recruit and retain nurses and having a good contract is the only way that we are going to be able to do that. I will continue this fight on my coworkers behalf. You all deserve better.” — Stephanie Sausman, Pre-Op 

“Being a Union Member is important to me because it gives me an opportunity to represent nurses who I admire, it’s a way for me to fight for them, to advocate for my co-workers both publicly and as a representative in the staffing committee.” — Trevor Gjendem, 8 South

“Being a part of a union is important to me because I have worked in organizations that are not union backed. I know how employers treat their employees when they are not represented and protected by a contract. You are not paid what you are worth and you have no employment protections. Being a part of the bargaining process has shown me just how ruthless this employer would be if we didn’t have union backing and has just solidified my belief in union representation.” — Juan Stout, Emergency Department 

“Being part of a union that is committed to working for us, hearing that we need, and then following through is what is important to me. UFCW is committed to all three, I look forward to continuing working with them to get a contract nurses have worked hard to get these past three years.” — Kelli Johnson, Emergency Department  

“UFCW is important to me because without a union I would have a mature contract that protects me as a nurse. Without staffing language and fair wages, I could not safely care for my patients.” — Kristen Crowder, Labor and Delivery

“Through a union contract nurses have a voice to fight for competitive wages that focuses on recruitment, retention, and patient safety. Without a contract we don’t have a voice.” — Julie Bynum Float Pool

“The more we know, the stronger our voice will be! I can do better; WE can do better - together!” — Carrie Rimel, Cath Lab