MultiCare Mary Bridge Therapies Bargaining Update
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On Thursday, November 5, our union Bargaining Team representing the newly organized Therapies Unit at MultiCare Mary Bridge met with management for our second day of negotiations towards our first union contract.
Similar to our first day on October 27, we spent most of Thursday in our caucus room with just our team, continuing to discuss and finalize remaining contract proposals to present across the table. During our first meeting with management for the day, we presented them with our proposal on the Grievance & Arbitration Procedure; a core element of any union contract- which provides us with a mechanism to enforce the language throughout our Collective Bargaining Agreement if it’s been violated. In short, the grievance process outlines a series of meetings between the affected worker(s), a representative from our Union, and progressively higher levels of management- in an effort to reach a remedy on the issue. While the goal of the grievance procedure is for both parties to reach a resolution at the lowest possible level, the final step in the process is binding arbitration- wherein a third-party arbitrator comes in to hear the facts of the case and make a determination.
In the afternoon we held a final joint-session for the day where we presented them with the contract article outlining standard hours of work, overtime provisions for non-exempt employees, meal and rest periods, and a section on direct and indirect care time our team worked to create from scratch; intended to set standards for scheduling capacity, ensuring we have appropriate time to chart cases and coordinate care outside of direct patient contact.
The rest of our caucus time went toward preparing our initial economic proposals, including wages, pay premiums and differentials, health care and retirement benefits, and more. We look forward to meeting with MultiCare again on Monday, November 23, when we plan to pass many of these sections across the table!
If you have additional questions, reach out to a member of our Bargaining Team, or to our union representative, Ian Jacobson, at (206) 436-6550. We plan to schedule our next Contract Action Team meeting after our next session so we have plenty to share, so stay tuned!
Our Union Bargaining Team: Kathleen Cotter, Speech Pathologist; Megan Booth; Certified Prosthetist Orthotist; Danielle Austin, Audiology Assistant
If one of your colleagues did not receive this update, please have them provide their personal email address to Union Rep Ian Jacobson.
