Providence Regional Medical Center Everett Professionals BARGAINING BEGINS!

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On Tuesday, March 11, our union Bargaining Team for the Professionals at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (PRMCE) joined management at the bargaining table for our first official day of negotiations for the 2025 contract cycle! 

Leading up to our first session, our team met initially on January 8th to review feedback from completed bargaining surveys and used this data to conduct a thorough audit of our own Collective Bargaining Agreement. Furthermore, our union has been working in close collaboration with our coalition partner unions, SEIU 1199NW & WSNA, to analyze and research the strongest regional and national contract language for healthcare workers; combining all of these resources to inform our initial set of proposals for Providence.
To start of this round of negotiations, our team spent today focusing primarily on the “non-economic” sections of our contract, encompassing Articles which don’t directly relate to wages, premiums, or benefits. We presented management with proposals on various important workplace issues, including:

  1. Free on-site parking for employees of PRMCE.

  2. Emergency access to PTO in situations where commuting conditions pose a safety risk.

  3. A thorough set of proposals aimed at promoting equal opportunity and enhancing workplace safety, & preventing workplace violence. 

The Employer responded to our initial proposals later that afternoon and we all engaged in productive discussion with management over many of the topics raised. However, their counter proposals rejected much of the contract language we had proposed- instead, they indicated a preference to defer to their own written policies. While it’s encouraging that some workplace protections may be addressed in existing policies, the Employer also began the discussion by citing their preference for written policies due to their flexibility for modification and change. Following today’s session, our union sent a comprehensive Request for Information to the Employer in hopes of gaining access to the specific policies and practices they seem to indicate satisfy the concerns we raised.

Our team also proposed an initial proposal to the Employer regarding the recent Case Manager department reclassification and licensure requirement change. In our proposal, we demanded that the Employer provide sufficient time for Case Managers to meet the new licensure requirements, along with financial support, flexibility in scheduling assignments, and the necessary shadowing and training opportunities to meet the Employer’s proposed changes.

We are eagerly awaiting responses to this proposal, along with responses to a number of other Articles we presented alongside it in our afternoon session at our next bargaining date with PRMCE on Friday, March 21. 

CONTRACT ACTION TEAM MEETING: March 19 @ 6:00PM 
Teamsters Local 38 Union Hall 2601 Everett Ave, Everett, WA 982012601 Everett Ave

“Our team had a very productive first day of bargaining- a lot of work went into our proposals; we’re pushing for serious improvements and we’re looking forward to keeping this momentum going on the 21!” —Sara Dillon, Senior Discharge Planner & Member of your Professionals Union Bargaining Team. 

Our Union Bargaining Team [L-R]: Sara Dillon; Sr. Discharge Planner (Case Manager); Holly Gramse; Physical Therapist; (not pictured) Taylor Widener, Sr. Dietician