Confluence Health - Bargaining Begins at Confluence Health for the Professional First Contract

Bargaining Team: Theresa Randolph, Lab Scientist; Trisha Self, Physical Therapist; Clari Ramos, Nutrition Therapy; Jessica Schell, Social Worker; Trevor Schultz, Pharmacist.

“Overall, today had a positive outcome, and we did a lot of hard work on our proposals. Still, I am a little disappointed that management did not have much to give back to us today. I am excited to see what progress we make at future meetings.”

— Trevor Schultz

“Your Bargaining Team has put in a lot of work to get to today. We have had several meetings and put a lot of thought into the proposals we presented. Our Bargaining Team is committed to ensuring that each proposal reflects the priorities of the entire unit. We have spent a lot of time considering how each sentence could be interpreted and ensuring that all language matches our collective needs across departments.”

— Trisha Self

We have just concluded our first day of bargaining for our Union contract. We presented all of our non-economic proposals, including recognition, successorship, seniority, employment practices, job security, and a grievance procedure to protect us in our jobs.

Management responded to two of our proposals and committed to responding to the rest at our next session on the 23.

We learned a lot about the process today and are hopeful about what we can accomplish at the next meeting. This is a fluid process that is continually changing, and at this time, we are limited in what specifics we can share. Throughout this process, it is important that we maintain unity and strength to win what we deserve.

After each session, we will send one of these updates and highlight opportunities for everyone to be involved in this process through our Contract Action Team.

Please reach out with any questions or concerns to your Union Rep, Becky Latzel, or a member of the Bargaining Team.

MultiCare Capital Medical Center Professionals - Tentative Agreement Reached! Vote Scheduled! Informational picket canceled!

Our Bargaining Team at Capital Medical Center is overjoyed to announce that on Thursday, July 9, we reached a fully recommended tentative agreement with MultiCare for the Professionals’ first Union contract.

Copies of the full contract and wage scales will be available at the vote. Our Union Bargaining Team will also be present to make sure our coworkers get the necessary details before casting their ballots.

Importantly, this also means that the informational picket scheduled for Monday, July 13, is canceled.

Through our strength, determination, and collective power, we achieved a first contract that we are proud to bring to a vote, including significant wins like:

Just Cause protections, so we cannot be disciplined or terminated without substantiating evidence

Union seniority rights, so our tenure with CapMC will factor into various job protections and rights

Health insurance protections, including capped premium increases over the course of our Agreement and guaranteed benefit eligibility based on FTE

Union wage scales, securing minimum wage rates based on years of experience and continued growth through both across-the-board increases and step longevity advancement

Credit for work experience, so experience in our job classifications, including experience outside of and before Capital Medical Center, will factor directly into our placement on the Union wage scales

To read through the tentative agreement, discuss the future of our new Professionals Union, and cast your ballot, please attend one of the vote meetings below.

Ratification Vote

July 20

7am - 9am and 2pm - 5pm

MultiCare Capital Medical Center, Cascade Conference Room, located within the cafeteria

“So excited! At a loss for words!”

— Sela Smith, Pharmacist

“We did it!”

— Amy Myrtue, Dietitian

“I’m proud that we stuck it out, I’m proud of the work we did, and proud of this contract!”

— Kimberly Vetter, Occupational Therapist

“Excited to have made it here, and with such a great foundation that we only get to build on from here!”

— Tammy Taylor, Physical Therapist

Bargaining Team: Kimberly Vetter, Occupational Therapist; Sela Smith, Pharmacist; Tammy Taylor, Physical Therapist; Amy Myrtue, Dietitian; Callie Hills, Hospital Social Worker.

Providence Radiant Care - Bargaining Update

On July 7 & 8, we met with Providence for back-to-back bargaining days to continue negotiations on our union contract. Over the course of our time together, we focused heavily on the all-too-normal issues faced by employees at our clinics- chronic understaffing leading to chronic overtime, frequent traveling between clinics to help out with other chronically understaffed clinics… All leading to an increased workload, stressful work environment, and sense of uncertainty in our schedules.

While we exchanged a number of different ideas around incentives/stipends/bonuses to try and lessen the impact on our staff- we continuously stressed to Providence that overall- these ancillary solves are just that: ancillary; and frankly, if wages at Radiant Care were competitive enough to recruit and retain talented staff, we all wouldn’t need to rely on them.

In the afternoon on Wednesday, we presented Providence with a comprehensive package proposal which aims to both illustrate (and directly address) to management that wages are the permanent fix, rather than just a band-aid. After spending a bit of time reviewing the proposal, management let us know that they’d need more time to run numbers and spend time working on their end to get us a response. While we are very eager to see what their response brings- it’s also time that we have some serious conversations with our coworkers about the next steps in our contract bargain:

“We’ve come to a critical point in negotiations and we’re going to have to make important decisions about next steps that will impact all of us- therefore, we need to hear from all of you. Show up, in person, so we all know how to move forward.” -Kelly Covington, RN

CONTRACT ACTION TEAM MEETING: Friday, July 10 from 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

In-person location in Olympia forthcoming – our Bargaining Team will follow-up with the location ASAP

In the meantime, we are also officially launching Strike Pledge Cards- follow the link below to pledge your name in solidarity & show management we are ready to take action to win a strong contract!

SIGN THE STRIKE PLEDGE! >>

St. Michael Medical Center Bargaining Update - Sign The Strike Pledge Card Today!

St. Michael Medical Center

Bargaining Update - Sign The Strike Pledge Card Today!

Tuesday, July 7

Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer again on Tuesday, July 7, to continue negotiations for our next Union contract.

After more than a month of waiting for a response to our health care proposal, the Employer finally came back with a counterproposal. While we appreciate finally receiving a response, the numbers they proposed are not sufficient to keep up with projected increases in health insurance costs and would likely result in higher costs for workers.

Our Bargaining Team’s health care proposal was based on data provided by professional health care actuaries and is designed to ensure that the Employer bears the burden of projected cost increases instead of pushing those costs onto workers. Anything less increases the possibility that workers will pay more for their health care and our bargaining team believes any increases to workers is unacceptable, especially given the employer low offer on wage increases.

Frustrated but determined, our Bargaining Team got back to work and presented another comprehensive proposal for the Employer to review. Our proposal addresses many of the real needs workers are facing, including competitive market-based wages, affordable health insurance, and meaningful premium improvements. Our wage proposals did not make much movement, but they are in line with what the market is offering at other health care facilities and would help keep St. Michael competitive.

We stand by our proposals. They are realistic, data-driven, and necessary. The Employer, meanwhile, continues to act as if it can ignore the economic realities facing health care workers.

That became even more clear when the Employer sent back a second counterproposal later in the day. While they slightly increased their offer on health care, their movement on wages was minimal and insulting.

The Employer’s latest wage proposal is:

Year 1 (2026): 2.75%

Year 2 (2027): 2.50%

Year 3 (2028): 3.00%

Nothing will change until we take action. Many of your coworkers have already signed the Strike Pledge Card and are wearing Union stickers in the workplace. If you have not signed yet, now is the time!

Sign The Strike Pledge Card Today >>

Our next bargaining date with the Employer is July 16, and we have proposed additional dates for the Employer’s consideration.

"A hospital’s greatest asset is its people. A contract that fails to value them fails everyone."

— Lara Williams-Graham

"A big waste of time."

— Bryson Andrews

Bargaining Team: Robel Haile, Clinical Pharmacist; Bryson Andrews, ED Tech; Olivia Almeida, Respiratory Therapist; Merry Brandt-MacFann, CT Technologist; Lara Williams-Graham, Certified Surgical Technologist; Angela Roberson, EP Technologist; Rob Shauger, CNA.

CommonSpirit St. Joseph Medical Center - Technical Unit Bargaining Update

CommonSpirit St. Joseph Medical Center Technical Unit
Bargaining Update

June 24

On Wednesday, June 24, our bargaining team met with CommonSpirit management for our fifth session of contract negotiations.

The conference room was very warm—nearly 80 degrees by the time we arrived at 8:30am—but our team was fired up even before the Employer’s counterproposals came later that morning. Given the recent unanimous strike vote and contract ratification by the Pharmacists at our hospital over the last two weeks, we spent our morning debriefing their negotiations, knowing their experience would give us insights into what we could expect at our own bargaining table.

Around 11am we received management’s “comprehensive” counterproposal. Comprehensive because technically it includes both economic and non-economic articles, but in quotations because there wasn’t much offered in the first place. Today’s proposals had so little movement that you would probably miss it if the Employer hadn’t read it to us:

• An increase of 0.25% from their last proposal toward wages in each year of our contract, totaling 2.25% across the board for all classifications.

• Rejection of any increase to premiums or differentials (lead pay, certification premium, preceptor pay, standby/on-call, and so on).

Beyond the Employer’s underwhelming offer on compensation, their proposal maintained some takeaways:

• A proposal to eliminate the 15% pay-in-lieu-of-benefits wage differential for workers who opt out of health and welfare benefits (Section 9.5).

• A proposal to modify the full- and part-time FTE definition as it applies to cost-sharing for health insurance premiums. This would result in workers currently considered full-time eventually paying a larger portion of monthly premiums (Section 12.1).

After receiving the proposal and moving to a conference room with a slightly lower temperature, our team continued strategizing around next steps and how to build power to win a strong contract. Ultimately, we decided it was best to return our own counterproposals at the start of our next bargaining session, rather than that afternoon. We suspect that many of the discussions we have at the table are being forgotten in the time between sessions. We look forward to returning to the bargaining table on July 16 and getting our own counterproposals to management first thing in the morning.

To get more information about ongoing negotiations and to discuss strategies to build power to win a strong union contract, join our next Contract Action Team meeting.

Contract Action Team Meeting

• Tuesday, July 14

• 5:30pm - 6:30pm

• Zoom Meeting

• Join Zoom Meeting >>

• Meeting ID: 860 5668 2841

• Passcode: 442907

If you haven’t already, sign our STRIKE PLEDGE CARD to show management we are ready to stand together:

Sign the Strike Pledge >>

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

Contract Action Network Sign-Up >>

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

Recovery Cafe - First Contracts Ratified at Recovery Cafe

On June 29, members ratified both of our new contracts at Recovery Cafe. Our fight for a first contract gives us a stronger voice on the job and guaranteed protections and benefits. Recovery Cafe will follow up soon with information about the implementation timeline for wages, back pay, and other guaranteed benefits.

But we don’t need to wait to build power in other ways. We need members interested in joining our Labor Management Committee and in becoming Stewards. Follow up with your Union Rep Chris Arellano at (360) 409-0241 for more information about getting involved.

We will continue building power in our workplace, for our members, and with each other.

Seattle Children’s Hospital

The Seattle Children’s Hospital MA Conference Committee met with Management Tuesday, 6/9/26. We discussed a number of concerns including a staffing complaint, changes to what holidays people can be required to work, changes to how many union members can take PTO on a single day, policies around patient behavioral health, and Weingarten rights. We want all members to feel comfortable asserting their Weingarten rights and to know that if members are asked questions they feel can lead to discipline, they have the right to have a union representative or steward present. Please make sure you assert your Weingarten rights when necessary and make sure your coworkers know their rights too!
 
The Urgent Care MA Committee consists of Wendy Rivas, Joey Martin, Lynnzey Ward, and David Trujillo (Union Rep 206-436-6606). Please reach out to us if you have any questions.

UFCW 3000 - Know Your Rights >>

Trios Health - Bargaining Update

Trios Health
Bargaining Update

Our bargaining committee met with the Employer for our first bargaining session and began discussions on the priorities members identified for this bargaining cycle. These priorities include retention and recruitment, on-call provisions, wage increases, a three-year contract, and other proposals aimed at improving working conditions.

During this session, we presented our proposals and discussed these important issues with the Employer. This meeting marked the beginning of the bargaining process and gave both parties the opportunity to outline their priorities. We are now awaiting the Employer’s response and anticipate receiving it during our next bargaining sessions on July 16 and 17.

Our bargaining committee remains committed to advocating for a fair contract that reflects the value of your work. We will continue to keep you informed as negotiations move forward.

“We are working hard to represent all members of the Union and are committed to bringing the concerns of all to the bargaining table. We have submitted our initial proposal and are waiting for a response. Please join us on July 8. Thank you for your support.”

What's Next

Bargaining Update Meeting

July 8
6pm - 7:30pm

Update Your Contact Information

Help us make sure you receive the latest bargaining updates and important communications by taking one minute to update your contact information. Update Your Information >>

Upcoming Trainings

• Intro Shop Steward Training (Online) · UFCW 3000 >>

• Steward Training: How to Represent Co-Workers in Investigatory Meetings (Online) · UFCW 3000 >>

Bargaining Team: Kelsey Webb, Karen Campbell, Tami Ottenbreit, Holly Hurst, Yesenia Ellis

Please reach out to our Bargaining Team or your Union Rep, Juanita Quezada, at (509) 340-7407, if you have any questions or concerns.

OMC Service - Our Bargaining Team Pushes Forward on Member Priorities

OMC Service
Our Bargaining Team Pushes Forward on Member Priorities

Our Bargaining Team met with Olympic Medical Center on June 29 and continued advancing proposals that reflect the priorities members have been raising. Our Team came prepared and focused on language that protects seniority, strengthens job posting and transfer rights, and addresses scheduling concerns for Service workers.

Our Union passed proposals that would improve monthly status reports to the Union, strengthen new hire orientation access, and protect seniority rights in job openings, transfers, layoffs, recalls, promotions, and shift changes. Our Team also proposed language to address variable shifts, including protections against being scheduled for day, evening, and night shifts in the same workweek.

What Our Team Proposed

Protect seniority — Seniority should matter when it comes to layoffs, recalls, transfers, shift changes, promotions, and job vacancies when qualifications are equal.

Improve job posting rights — Our Union proposed that regular job openings be posted internally before being posted externally, giving current workers the first opportunity to apply.

Address work rotation and variable shifts — Our Team proposed protections so workers are not scheduled to work day shift, evening shift, and night shift in the same workweek. The proposal also protects workers from being required to rotate between day shift one week and night shift the following week.

Strengthen benefits and leave language — Our Union also passed proposals around lead pay, vacation scheduling, paid sick leave carryover, bereavement leave, and expanding the definition of immediate family to include family members such as niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, and first cousin.

What We Are Still Fighting For

Our Bargaining Team is continuing to fight for language that respects Service workers' work, protects seniority, creates fair access to job opportunities, improves transparency, and gives workers more stability in their schedules.

Next Bargaining Session

July 14, 2026

Stay United and Stay Ready

The strength of this campaign comes from members standing together. Our Team will continue to bring member priorities to the table and fight for a contract that protects OMC Service workers.

Stay united, stay engaged, and stay ready.

St. Michael Medical Center Service & Dietary - Bargaining Update

St. Michael Medical Center Service & Dietary
Bargaining Update

Friday, June 26

We met with the Employer again on Friday, June 26, to continue negotiations toward a new contract. This came one day after our Pro-Tech Union siblings had an unproductive bargaining session of their own, which they described as a “big waste of time.”

Unfortunately, our bargaining session was not much different.

While the parties exchanged several proposals throughout the day, very little progress was made, especially on economics. The Employer’s current wage proposal for all workers is:

• 2.25% in year one

• 2.25% in year two

• 2.00% in year three

What makes this especially frustrating is that the Employer has continued to ignore many of our key economic proposals, including proposals to improve premiums such as shift differential, lead pay, and weekend premium. Our Union Bargaining Team took the time to carefully develop these proposals because they directly impact members’ lives and reflect the real challenges workers are facing. Having those priorities dismissed or left unanswered is unacceptable.

The day ended early because several members of management’s team needed to leave early. This has now happened during the last two bargaining sessions. Our Bargaining Team continues to come prepared and ready to bargain, but it is frustrating when management does not show the same urgency to reach a fair agreement.

Our technical UFCW 3000 Union siblings both here and at St. Joseph Medical Center, who have the same contract expiration date, also bargained this last week and experienced a similar lack of progress. Our Bargaining Team is working to coordinate with their team to discuss how we can work together to win fair contracts for all units, keep Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities competitive with the market, and set standards that will recruit and retain high-quality staff.

We encourage everyone to join our next virtual Contract Action Team (CAT) Meeting on July 9 at 4pm, where we will announce the next steps in this campaign.

CAT Meeting

July 9, 2026
4pm

St. Michael Medical Center Professional-Technical-Clinical Support - Bargaining Update - A Big Waste of Time

We met with the Employer again on Thursday, June 25. All proposals were in the Employer’s court for response. Our Bargaining Team came prepared and hopeful that real progress could be made.

Unfortunately, the Employer was not ready to present proposals until 1:30pm. When they finally did meet with us, we were disappointed and frustrated to learn that they only had non-economic responses. They cited a lack of approval from higher management as the reason they could not respond to key economic proposals.

On economics, the Employer specifically pointed to a lack of approval to provide a meaningful response on health care, an issue we have still not received any counterproposal on. At this point, even if the Employer provided a counterproposal on all other economic issues, it would be extremely difficult for our Bargaining Team to respond without first receiving answers about the future of our health care costs.

Therefore, the Employer’s proposal on wages from our last session still stands:

• 2.50% in year one

• 2.50% in year two

• 2.25% in year three

What little the Employer did counter made almost no meaningful progress and did not address the issues that matter most to workers. The Employer continues to hold firm to its proposal to force workers to wear specific scrub colors by job classification, at workers’ own expense. They also proposed lopsided language that would treat members of our bargaining unit inequitably when it comes to recognizing experience, depending on job classification. And they continue to reject our reasonable safety proposal to increase security presence in the Family Birth Center.

Our Bargaining Team was able to quickly respond to the limited proposals the Employer did pass. But after only a few hours of actual bargaining, the Employer stated that they still did not have the approvals needed to provide further responses. As a result, we ended the day early, even though bargaining had already started late.

Our technical UFCW 3000 Union siblings at St. Joseph Medical Center, who have the same contract expiration date, also bargained this week and experienced a similar lack of progress. Our Bargaining Team is working to coordinate with their team to discuss how we can work together to win fair contracts for both units, keep Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities competitive with the market, and set standards that will recruit and retain high-quality staff.

We encourage everyone to join our next virtual Contract Action Team (“CAT”) Meeting on July 1 at 4pm, where we will announce the next steps in this campaign.

“The Employer came totally unprepared to be productive in bargaining.”

— Merry Brandt-MacFann

“They wasted our time and came back unprepared. So let’s be prepared and have everybody join our CAT Meeting at 4pm on July 1!”

— Rob Shauger

“When we bargain with the Employer, we are pulling resources from the hospital because our shifts need to be covered. So when management isn’t ready to bargain, it is just a waste of those resources.”

— Angela Roberson

• CAT Meeting

• July 1

• 4pm

• Zoom

Bargaining Team: Robel Haile, Clinical Pharmacist; Bryson Andrews, ED Tech; Olivia Almeida, Respiratory Therapist; Merry Brandt-MacFann, CT Technologist; Lara Williams-Graham, Certified Surgical Technologist; Angela Roberson, EP Technologist; Rob Shauger, CNA

MultiCare - United at MultiCare

We are the thousands of UFCW 3000 members at MultiCare Health Systems. We provide care for our patients every day. As we say, “We put the Care in MultiCare.” But for years we have known that there are thousands of workers at MultiCare who are not part of our union but could be. Over the past year, more and more workers are joining together in UFCW 3000. Just last week 138 more officially joined at the Mary Bridge Therapies. And 32 PROs at Cap Medical Center who joined last year are in their first contract bargain. And 15 more at the Women’s Clinic will begin to bargain their first contract soon.

“Since we won our union at MultiCare, they have dragged their feet in negotiations for a first contract. Now, after a year of hard bargaining, they appear willing to move on some major items – but ONLY if we accept terms that weaken our power before we even get started. If we’re patient, stand together and refuse to be played, we can overcome this hurdle and get the contract we need. MultiCare fought us when we tried to form our union, and now they want us to accept a contract that weakens our ability to defend and improve our working conditions. We need to stay strong. We work in the same hospital. We need the same rights.”

— Ruyang He, Pharmacist, one of 32 PROs negotiating for a first contract with MultiCare

Having more members is part of what we need to build our power so we can sit down and negotiate with MultiCare on issues that impact all workers and our community—safety, staffing, benefits, and wages that result in recruitment and retention. Another part is ensuring all contracts maintain our most basic rights, including Union Security. Union Security is a foundational clause in all of our MultiCare contracts, and it is what allows us to build power as a union and negotiate better contracts with this Employer. Without that clause, our union would become weaker over time.

Right now MultiCare is trying to deny that right to the newly organized PROs at Cap Med Center, who are going back into bargaining on June 29. We all support the UFCW 3000 workers at Capital Medical Center when they say “Same Hospital. Same Rights.”
 

“It’s such great news that 32 Pros at Cap Medical are growing our union and bargaining a first contract. Getting a first contract settled with MultiCare can be tough because they don’t like giving up their unchallenged power over our wages and working conditions. Union Security is a basic standard that we have in all 18 of our union contracts with MultiCare. Union Security means we have true shared power—and that’s why MultiCare is trying to deny it to the Pros at Capital Medical Center. No way! Same Hospital. Same Rights.”

— Dennis Verellen, RN, Capital Medical Center

 “Union security in a contract is like management rights. Union security allows us to be a union. Management rights allow MultiCare to run their hospital. MultiCare would never let us tell them how to run their hospitals. And we can never let them tell us how to run our union by denying union security. They’ve decided to pick on you because you’re just thirty-two Pros at Cap Medical and you are rightfully determined to set high standards in your first union contract. But since you voted to form your union, you’re no longer thirty-two—you’ve become part of the thousands of UFCW 3000 health care workers at MultiCare. We stand with you.”

— Patricia Brown, LPN, Tacoma General 

And this current battle for a fair contract is connected to all of our contracts. We need to begin coming together and getting ready for 2027. Stay tuned for more information as this campaign grows and as more and more workers at MultiCare join our union.

Preparing for 2027

We are preparing for the big 2027 MultiCare bargains, and part of that preparation is standing in solidarity with our coworkers who are fighting for first contracts.

If you know of others at MultiCare who want to join UFCW 3000, please contact a UFCW 3000 Union Organizer by calling or texting 206-414-9601.

Learn more about organizing your union >>

If you have questions about what you can do to build power for your contract so we can negotiate improved safety, staffing, pay, benefits and protect our rights at work, contact your Union Reps:

• Penny Cramer, 206-436-6559

• Ian Jacobson, 206-436-6550

• Charlie King, 206-436-6518

“This has been a long, hard process for the Pros. And they didn’t come all this way to let MultiCare take away your power at the starting line. We’ve had hard bargains with MultiCare before, and we know how to bring them around. We can’t get everything we want, but we sure won’t allow them to take away what we need. And we need Union Security. Stay strong. We’ve got each other’s back. Same Hospital. Same Rights!”

— Demarious Jenkins, Dietary Tech, Capital Medical Center

“The PROs have been in bargaining for a year. MultiCare made them wait, wait, and wait some more for a serious response to your proposals. And now they’re saying they’ll give PROs lots of stuff if they just give up Union Security. Why? Because they want to permanently weaken our union by picking on this newly organized group. They tried things like this with us at Tacoma General. But we stood firm on the things we absolutely needed, and we won a strong contract, including union security. It is imperative that we maintain our Union Security and stand strong in solidarity with all our union co-workers throughout the MultiCare system.”

— Gregg Barney, Print Shop Operator, Tacoma General 

“MultiCare is not being honest with you. When MultiCare tries to push a contract without Union Security, we need to be careful and patient, or they’ll take one of the foundations of our power—union security. We are united in support of the PROs. Unless everyone is included in a union contract, all our contracts are at risk of becoming weaker. Union Security is a basic standard in all of our union’s contracts with MultiCare.”

— Alex Kolva, Nutritionist, Tacoma General