Bargaining Team: Michelle Gilmore, Respiratory Therapist; Monica Dewitt, Pharmacy Tech; Vanessa Giles, Surgical Technologist; Chad Michels, Cardiovascular Technologist; Sissy Allison, Surgical Technologist, Leslie Ball, Surgical Technologist

CommonSpirit St. Joseph Medical Center Technical Unit
Get Ready for Action!

We started our sixth day of union contract negotiations with proposals in our court, which we began with a new cadence that we thought a might help our discussions get across and reach the Employer. While we did reach a few new Tentative Agreements (a three-year duration on our contract, clarity around suggesting new premium-eligible certifications through Labor Management Committee, and the removal of some old language referencing an effective date from three years in the past…), I’m sure you can imagine, these aren’t the topics of discussion which our Bargaining Team and coworkers at SJMC care the most about.

What we care about is the increased number of travelers staffing our units, increased obligation that employees who take call are expected to carry, and the already below-market & stagnant wages St. Joe’s is offering- and we came to our first day of negotiations back in March with proposals like:

New language which would require the Employer to post bargaining unit FTEs when agency or traveler workers make up too much of our unit for too long
A number of proposals targeted at reducing required call volume for each employee, incentivizing additional voluntary standby pickup, and a higher premium when being called in requires a quicker response time
And of course, wages focused on bringing SJMC back to competitive within the Puget Sound healthcare market

Considering the above examples, the Employer is:

Rejecting our traveler-based FTE job posting language
Rejecting the standby-scheduling proposal (in addition to rejecting all proposed increases to premiums and differentials)
Proposing to increase all classifications’ wages by just 2.25% in each year of our contract (an increase from the 2.00% brought to us initially on June 4th)

“We told the Employer we’re here to bargain and get our wages competitive, and if they make a proposal that puts us there, we’ll agree to it and wrap the contract up. That didn’t happen.”-Chad Michels, Cardiovascular Technologist

We’re dedicated to working hard and strategizing around how to win a strong contract for all technical workers at SJMC; but if this remains the Employer’s strategy, CommonSpirit will have a serious labor dispute on their hands.

Contract Action Team Meeting:

Tuesday, July 21 from 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting >>
Meeting ID: 827 0034 3840
Passcode: 949505

Nothing will change unless we take action together. Workers throughout the hospital have already signed the strike pledge card, if you haven’t yet you can by following the below link:

Sign the Strike Pledge >>

And sign up to be an ACTION NETWORK LEAD to keep your coworkers informed and ready throughout bargaining:

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