Our Union Bargaining Team of Registered Nurses at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, & joined by our newly-organized Diabetes Educator nurses, met with Management on Tuesday, September 10 ready to work hard, and get to an updated 2024 Agreement with MultiCare- only to find that Management arrived with no responses to our compensation proposals, or to the Memorandum of Understanding (an addendum to our contract) on the Diabetes Educators entry into our Bargaining Unit.

We’re so glad to have the RN Diabetes Educators with us at the table this year- we’re committed to standing together with them to ensure they are treated fairly throughout this process. Even in the absence of Management's response to our proposal, their presence at the bargaining table has demonstrated the strength and solidarity of our union!

“We deserve to be here at the bargaining table- prior to this, we haven’t gotten the representation we need, or the pay we deserve- even just the pay the other Nurses in our hospital have gotten for years! we’re all just recognizing the value of being part of the union & no longer falling behind!” —Tonia Ruzela, Diabetes Educator RN

Regarding the economic proposals for the main RN contract, because we’re still awaiting MultiCare’s response we decided it was best to hold off on addressing a few of the other Articles we’ve been discussing with Management; an approach that allows us to carefully weigh all our priorities as a team. While this decision was challenging, we believe that receiving strong compensation proposals from MultiCare will better inform our evaluation of our top priorities. Our goal is to maximize benefits for the greatest number of nurses, and we are committed to achieving that.

Despite our frustrations with wage negotiations, we’re excited to share some positive progress on other aspects of the contract. We’ve successfully secured an agreement for the same parking benefits at Mary Bridge that many of our union colleagues won in negotiations earlier this year. Specifically, that employees will continue to be provided with designated parking, subject to availability, at no cost to them. Given the significance of this issue at other bargaining tables, we’re hopeful that management's agreement with us signals a shared readiness to work towards a final contract fast!

Beyond the formal agreements we came to with MultiCare, we also engaged in productive conversation on PTO accruals, access to our Extended Illness Time, and the Rest Between Shifts minimums afforded to us. We’re also hopeful that we can work with Management on better outlining the process for internal transfers within Mary Bridge- ensuring that nurses transitioning between units experience a smooth and timely move to their new role.

We feel like we got a lot done today and made good progress on our contract- while we await MultiCare’s economic responses, we want to make it very clear to our coworkers that once we get these back from management, we’ll have a clearer understanding of the actions needed to secure the fair contract we deserve. Stay tuned for updates on how we’ll move forward together.

“We’re definitely getting tired of waiting! My goal is to get this contract done before this baby gets here!” -Demi Trotter, RN