CommonSpirit St. Joseph Medical Center Pharmacy BARGAINING UPDATE

On Wednesday, April 1, our Union Bargaining Team representing the Pharmacists at St. Joseph Medical Center met with Management for our ninth session of contract negotiations. Following several weeks since our most recent bargaining date before today- we started off the morning eager to hear Management’s response to the end-of-day package we’d presented last session.
 
In summary, our most recent package presented to the Employer was fully intended to bring our bargain to a close and to reach to a final tentative agreement. While there is only one non-economic item outstanding (a Memorandum of Understanding which aims to protect our work if the Employer opts to subcontract) the most significant issues on the table are related to compensation.
 
Unfortunately, not only was our February 2 offer rejected, but Management returned with a wage scale offer of their own which would not even bring us up to the current wage rates of our nearest competitor (keeping in mind that this unit is set to enter negotiations in less than a year from now…), let alone would keep us some of the lowest paid Pharmacists within any unionized hospital from Olympia to Everett.
 
Our team got to work right away to get a counter into Management’s hands- which was finalized and set to present around 12:30PM. Alongside our proposal- which held strong on competitive wages- we also took the time to go into extensive detail with Management on the regional wages for Pharmacists- including sharing illustrative graphs and other area wage scales, and shared personal statements on how thinly stretched we have all become as a result of the ever-increasing workload expectations and inability to confidently recruit and retain staff; all leading to potential and actual impacts on the patients we serve.
 
Despite all of this, the Employer let us know around 2:30PM that they likely wouldn’t have a counter for us that afternoon. We told them that we would be willing and ready to consider any proposal or offer they could bring to us- so as to not end our day so early- to no avail.
 
We are currently working to schedule future bargaining days with Management, but in the meantime, our Bargaining Team are calling on all of our coworkers within the Pharmacy contract to attend our Contract Action Team meetings (info below) to discuss ongoing negotiations, and ways to build power to tell management we deserve a strong union contract!

CONTRACT ACTION TEAM MEETING: 
Wednesday, April 8 from 11am – 12pm and 7pm – 8pm via Zoom >>

Meeting ID: 828 3956 1403

“This is not where we hoped to be at the end of today. We have a lot of information to share with our colleagues; it’s imperative that everybody comes to one of our Contract Action Team meetings on the 8”
-Amanda Carter

“Despite the fact that we continue tell management we’re hemorrhaging staff to our closest competitor right down the road, they continue to propose that we should be paid less than them… as if that would fix any of these problems.”
-Becky Mountjoy
 
“Disappointing.”
-Tony Casanova
 
Our Union Bargaining Team: Tony Casanova, Clinical Pharmacist Specialist; Amanda Carter, Ambulatory Services Clinical Pharmacist; Becky Mountjoy, Clinical Pharmacist