Providence St. Peter Hospital RN 30+ Hours at the Table; Wages Block a Deal

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Our union bargaining team:Mary Bloomberg, Surgical Acute RN; Jacob Kostecka, PACU RN; Darlett Holm, SADU West RN; Mike Staley, SADU RN; Ashley McBride, L&D RN; Julia Douglas, Sepsis RN; Grace Kraege, ED RN; Kelly Williams, Inpatient Psychiatry RN; Melanie Oakes, ED RN; Andy Dusablon, PACU RN; Haley Sweet, Neurology RN.
 
On August 25 and 26, our UFCW 3000 nurse bargaining team met with management to continue contract negotiations, bargaining late into the night for over 30 hours across both days.
 
During these back-to-back sessions, our team put forward practical solutions that balanced our priorities with proposals management could accept. That work resolved several items, leaving only wages, staffing, and health/retirement benefits.
 
This included wins on:

  • Floating: Tentative agreement to pay a $2.00/hr floating premium to Float Pool nurses at all times, plus an additional $1.00/hr for Float Pool nurses who hold competency in more than one clinical area. This mirrors proven practices at other systems to build a strong float pool and support staffing across the hospital.

  • Charge Nurse: Tentative agreement that each unit’s staffing plan will identify whether the charge is free of a patient assignment. Unless identified in the staffing plan as a department that does not have a free charge, and nurses who are called into work on standby, departments will staff the unit to have a charge nurse who does not have a direct patient care assignment.

Yet at the end of day one, management declared there was “no movement” on healthcare and staffing, a dismissive statement on such important issues. On day two, we told management this was unacceptable; management reversed course, and we spent the day in multiple “supposal” (non-binding) discussions on healthcare and staffing.
 
These discussions included:

  • Healthcare: We reiterated our frustration with management’s refusal to provide the information needed to fully evaluate our Taft-Hartley health plan proposal, an unfair labor practice that has long frustrated the bargaining process. However, to move talks forward, we explored alternatives if we were to step off that proposal, including increasing the HRA incentive funding and maintaining current healthcare benefits for the full term of the contract. Management’s answer was a benefits navigator to help nurses deal with Aetna problems, something that Swedish Medical Center Nurses recently just won contract negotiations. However, no agreement was reached.

  • Staffing: With little traction on existing proposals, we suggested language recently added into several MultiCare contracts: a understaffing premium that applies to all nurses on a unit that falls below the Hospital Staffing Committee’s approved matrix. Management showed interest, and we spent a significant amount of time discussing how this would work at Providence St. Peter. However, no agreement was reached.

Wages were the breaking point, ending bargaining at 2:30 AM Wednesday morning. Providence’s final wage proposal came in below the scale just ratified at Providence Centralia and built in smaller increases in years two and three, guaranteeing St. Peter falls further behind each year. That is unacceptable and the main reason no agreement was reached this week.
 
We requested bargaining dates throughout September to continue negotiations, however, management responded that they would be “hard pressed” to find availability at any time in the entire month. This hospital operates 24/7 because nurses show up for patients; Providence must show up to bargaining with the same urgency and respect.
 
While management decides whether it can make time for nurses, we must demonstrate our unity and resolve for a fair contract. We have scheduled an INFORMATIONAL PICKET for Thursday, October 2, from 1:00–3:00 PM at the hospital. If Providence declines to meet in September, or refuses to reach a resolution on wages, staffing, and benefits that honors the work of St. Peter RNs, we will take action in October.
 
To learn more about the upcoming picket and how you can take action for a fair contract, please attend one of our upcoming Contract Action Team meetings.

Join Contract Action Team Meeting

Thursday, September 4, 2025
8PM – 9PM
Washington State Labor Council
906 Columbia St SW
Olympia 98501
Door Code: 3413
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85818750093?pwd=JVFRIMB8gaoPxa5VW1e7RXZODDnIII.1

Looking Ahead… Next Contract Action Team Meeting

Thursday, September 18, 2025
8PM – 9PM
Washington State Labor Council
906 Columbia St SW
Olympia 98501
Door Code: 3413
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85818750093?pwd=JVFRIMB8gaoPxa5VW1e7RXZODDnIII.1