St. Michael Medical Center Pro-Tech Bargaining Update

STRIKE AUTHORIZATION VOTE TO BE SCHEDULED

Our Bargaining Team met with CommonSpirit management again on Thursday, September 3, to continue negotiations for a successor contract.

Unfortunately, the day did not end on a positive note. After more than five months since our contract’s original expiration date, our Bargaining Team has made the difficult decision to call for a Strike Authorization Vote.

Our Bargaining Team is currently finalizing the details of the vote, which will occur within the next couple of weeks. We expect to announce the dates, times, and locations early next week.

Before the vote, we want everyone to understand how we got here and what this next step actually means.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Our contract expired March 31, 2026, and we have been bargaining in good faith ever since. This is the longest these negotiations have taken in recent memory.

A major reason appears to be CommonSpirit's much heavier involvement in bargaining throughout the region. We first saw this with St. Joseph Medical Center Pharmacists, where CommonSpirit told us that this region had performed worse financially than other parts of its system and identified labor as one of its largest cost drivers.

We recognize that the healthcare industry is under significant financial pressure from forces outside either party's control. However, our Bargaining Team has been clear: you cannot operate a successful hospital without the workers who provide the care.

At a minimum, we have told CommonSpirit that our wages need to remain competitive with MultiCare Tacoma General in order to recruit and retain enough qualified staff to operate our hospital successfully.

CommonSpirit has taken a very different position. During bargaining, we have been told that it is not their philosophy to reach market wages. When we warned that falling behind could eventually create a serious staffing crisis, their response was essentially that wages could be addressed later if recruitment and retention became bad enough.

Our Bargaining Team does not believe St. Michael should have to experience a staffing crisis before CommonSpirit decides that competitive wages matter.

WHAT HAPPENED ON SEPTEMBER 3

Going into bargaining on Thursday, September 3, we told CommonSpirit that these negotiations had gone on long enough.

We made clear that we intended to take the outcome of that session back to the membership and that, to reach a recommended deal, wages needed to be competitive with MultiCare Tacoma General.

There was reason to believe an agreement remained possible. Through mediation, we believed the parties had moved closer together. Then, after making our Bargaining Team wait for hours, CommonSpirit delivered its first and only proposal of the day late in the evening.

Instead of building on the progress made through mediation, CommonSpirit’s proposal erased that progress, largely regressing to its position from before mediation. The proposal offered only a 3.00% wage increase at ratification, while leaving many other important issues unresolved, including safety in the Family Birth Center.

After months of bargaining, mediation, an informational picket, and the progress that had already been made, our Bargaining Team viewed this proposal as a slap in the face.

St. Michael’s, or as many of us remember as Harrison Medical Center, has served Kitsap County for generations. We are not willing to watch CommonSpirit allow this hospital to become less competitive, making it harder to retain experienced staff, recruit new employees, and provide the care our community deserves.

We also believe the Employer’s actions at the table and in the workplace are Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) and we are reviewing them to determine how to hold CommonSpirit accountable.

Taking everything together, our Bargaining Team strongly believes the time has come to escalate by calling a strike authorization vote.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

A Strike Authorization Vote allows everyone to review CommonSpirit's latest offer in full and vote on whether to give our Bargaining Team the authority to call a strike if it ultimately becomes necessary.

To be clear: the Bargaining Team has not called a strike, and a strike is NOT imminent. We are continuing to work toward a fair agreement, and there is still time for CommonSpirit to change course and reach a peaceful resolution at the bargaining table.

We recognize that this is a serious step, and it is not one our Bargaining Team has taken lightly. But after what happened at the bargaining table, we need to be prepared to stand together in a potential strike if CommonSpirit leaves us no other reasonable option.

Stay tuned for more information about the vote next week.