MultiCare Time to turn up the pressure
/
On Thursday, May 9, our Union Bargaining Committee was eager to meet with MultiCare Management to continue negotiations on our nine contracts. We kicked the day off feeling refreshed & confident from the overwhelming support we’ve seen from our coworkers over the last week —a highly attended Union Family Day on May 4, and outstanding participation in Union Solidarity Day on May 8 (we gave out around 1,000 MultiCare Workers United buttons!)
And it seems that we may not be the only ones who noticed the growing solidarity in our workplaces…
At Thursday’s bargaining session, MultiCare came to the table and moved closer to our positions on a few of the proposals we’ve been passing back and forth- for example, discussions on Extra Shifts, and making a very reasonable counter proposal on Changing Time (donning/doffing)- which we later agreed to add to the contract!
While this exchange of proposals with MultiCare was encouraging (and felt like we were really bargaining!), it did not extend to many of the items that matter most to us, such as our wages and our health insurance benefits. In fact, we agreed that it is nessessary to remind Management, once again, why the proposals we’ve continued to put forward on the Health Insurance Plan are so important. We made it as clear as we could by breaking down the issues we’re facing into “categories” like affordability, access, and network. We broke down these categories further by sharing personal stories about how MultiCare’s benefit plans have negatively impacted us and our families.
Management’s movement on Thursday was a good start, but to win the wages, benefits, and workplace protections we need, we have to turn up the heat!
Mark your calendars:
