CommonSpirit St. Joseph Medical Center Technical Strike Authorization Vote Scheduled

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After ten sessions across six months of negotiations, our union Bargaining Team reached the difficult but necessary decision to call for a strike authorization vote. 

We’ve come to management with contract language addressing our positions being overstaffed by agency & traveler employees. Management have come to us rejecting this proposal. 

  • We introduced contract language which currently exists in the RN collective bargaining agreement at St. Joe’s addressing the standby/on-call burden & callback provisions in many of our units. Management have come to us time & time again rejecting these articles. 

  • We brought management fair and market-based increases to pay premiums and differentials. Management rejected our proposed premium increases, and told our team directly that they didn’t even check the cost of our proposed increases. 

  • We come with wage scale proposals supported by market research and specific focus on each classification’s competitive rate. Management are proposing to increase every job classification by a flat 3.00% each year of our contract. 

  • We wrote language to maintain predictability in the cost of our health insurance premiums. Management are proposing to take away the pay-in-lieu-of benefits wage differential (15.00%) during our Agreement, and are proposing a reconfiguration of full- and- part-time classifications so that a number of employees considered full-time will now fall within part-time premium costs; raising the amount paid by these employees. 

We’re not sure what CommonSpirit thinks will be the result of their positions on these issues- or what they think the conditions of our work even look like now but our Bargaining Team remains ready to continue working towards a fair contract with management. Now it’s time that we all stand together to demand CommonSpirit respect our rights as union workers, and come to the table ready to bargain in good faith!  

“The time for words is over; the time for action is now.” —Chad Michels; Cardiovascular Technologist

Strike Authorization Vote: Monday, October 5 
8AM—10AM, 11AM—4PM, 5PM—7PM 
People’s Community Center Tacoma: 1602 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, WA 98405

Our Union Bargaining Team unanimously recommends a NO vote on CommonSpirit’s offer, and a YES vote to authorize a strike.

Voting yes to authorize a strike allows our Bargaining Team to call a strike if it becomes necessary. No strike will begin without the written 10-day notice that federal law requires for hospitals, and our Bargaining Team will decide whether and when to call one.

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