On Tuesday, November 4, our Professionals Bargaining Team met with management for the seventh session of union contract negotiations.
At Wednesday's session, we continued the productive exchange of the remaining sections of our contract, reaching a handful of new agreements including language around Per Diem workers (more specifically regarding the wage differential in lieu of retirement and health care benefits), increased job protections for workers facing layoffs or workforce reductions, outlining the order in which workers will be placed on low census, and we even reached agreement on a handful of position's wages!
While progress was significant for a number of newly represented positions at PSPH, there were also a couple of positions whose Employer-proposed rates we strongly felt did not meet the wages that nearby Union professionals are earning. As such, our team continued to hold firm that Providence increase these scales to reduce staffing shortages and to meet the demand of the highly competitive market. As such, our team felt that it was beneficial to provide management with the wage scales we're referencing to inform our position. While we did not receive management's response to our proposal before negotiations concluded for the day, we are dedicated to making sure all Professionals at Providence St. Peter Hospital are paid fairly for the lifesaving work we perform every day.
We're looking forward to hearing back from Providence on Monday, November 10—when we are scheduled to be back at the table!
If you have questions about ongoing first contract negotiations, please reach out to a member of our Union Bargaining Team or call our Union Rep Madison Derksema at (206) 436-6603.
Bargaining Team: Rita Palmquist, Case Manager MSW; Elise Steinmetz, Physical Therapist; Sydney Lobdell, Dietitian; Kristine Pepper, Clinical Pharmacist; Brenda Arend, Speech Language Pathologist; Diana Herr, Senior Medical Laboratory Scientist
