MultiCare Covington Medical Bargaining Update
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We began our ninth session on February 9 with MultiCare by receiving the Employer’s proposal, which included some tentative agreements on shift differentials for RNs and Technical CBAs (Service was already above market), but left a lot of outstanding issues, including Charge Nurses, Staffing and Low Census, amongst others.
We worked hard and sent a response to MultiCare before the day was over and presented it to management close to the end of the day. After we presented our proposal, Management presented an examination of wages that indicated they found that certain positions in the Service and Technical CBAs warranted having a market adjustment after raising all wages. The positions included in their list were not representative of all of the positions we believe deserve market adjustments, so this will be an ongoing conversation.
At our tenth session, on February 13, we received the Employer’s proposal at 9:30AM and worked throughout the day to provide a response. We were able to provide a response to all of the outstanding language proposals by the end of the day.
We were recently made aware of long-standing intent to incorporate a number of Clinic employees into the hospital contract. This is an issue that has been discussed in bargaining for previous contracts but had not been brought up until bargaining for this iteration of the contract was underway. Because of that, we reached out to the Employer for an information request regarding the clinic employees and differences between the two contracts and are waiting for the response. As this information will take time to gather, we have cancelled our next bargaining session on February 20 and will resume bargaining on February 26.
Button Up:
Support our Bargaining Team and show the Employer you want a fair contract by wearing your “fair contract” button every day and then encourage your co-workers to wear theirs as well. If you don’t have a “fair contract” button, check the bulletin boards in break rooms or ask a Bargaining Team member.
Contract Action Team Meeting, February 19 between 11AM and 2PM:
Drop by Conference Room 2 on the 3rd floor of the clinic side, between 11AM and 2PM on February 19, to get updates on bargaining and next steps. Penny will be there to answer questions and inform you on the next steps in our bargaining process and will have buttons and other goodies.
Our Union Bargaining Team: Derek Howard-Engineering; Ryan Boyd- MRI Tech (Clinics); Rich Maresma- RN; Erin Reynolds- Emergency; Services Representative; Gosia Marin- Surgical Tech; Fortunate Edwin- Patient Care Technician; Luz Martinez- Patient Care Technician; Faith Soriano-Miller-RN; Poonam Gill-RN, Omar Guterriez-Distribution
