MultiCare Covington Medical Center - Bargaining Update: Session #5

We came into our fifth session on December 29 having passed everything across to the Employer and were hoping to get responses in the morning. The Employer took until 1pm to pass across a proposal, which did not include economics. Despite the delay, we had productive conversations around the proposals that were passed. After we received the responses from the Employer, we worked diligently to get them back counters to their proposals. We moved on many topics and had valuable discussions about issues to help contextualize why we are making some of our proposals.

While we were waiting, our team met our new Union Rep Penny Cramer! Penny will be the Union Rep for the RNs immediately and will take over the Service and Tech units early next year. We also conducted Steward and leadership training to help our Bargaining Team understand the power of having strong Stewards in our workplaces and how we can all become one.

Because we have continued to make progress, we agreed to a one-month extension of our contract with the Employer and we are hoping to continue to make progress in our next session on January 7.

Covington Medical Center - Historic tentative agreement reached

MultiCare Covington Hospital
HISTORIC TENTATIVE AGREEMENT REACHED

We worked hard to get some great improvements to our contract, but we couldn’t get everything we wanted this go around. We won new historic wages with the largest first year increases we have ever seen – making us the highest paid in the MultiCare system. We are proud to recommend a YES vote!

After months of bargaining, we finally reached a tentative agreement and fought hard to get a contract that works for all. As a result, we won historic language and wage increases!

» Historic wages that can help recruit and retain qualified staff

» New wage scales and job classifications

» Filled in all ghost steps

» Low census limits for RNs

» Staffing accountability language

» And other great wins!

PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VOTING TIMES SO YOU CAN VOTE ON OUR NEW CONTRACT!

If you have questions, please reach out to a Bargaining Team member OR call Union Rep Ian Jacobson @ 206-436-6550.

MultiCare - Covington Hospital - Headed closer towards an agreement

We met with the Employer on June 5 to resolve the handful of remaining issues that we have not agreed upon. While we made significant progress on all of our language proposals, and are extremely close on an agreement around wages, Management’s proposal to merge the Covington Clinic with Covington Hospital has proven to be complicated.

We have our next bargaining session on Tuesday, June 13, where we will dig into these issues with the proposed merger and evaluate if it is in the best interest of members.

“At long last, management recognized the need for limits around low census.”

– Poonam Gil, Surgery RN, Bargaining Team

“We are encouraged by the movement today and look forward to finalizing a good contract, hopefully on the 13th.”

– Ken Farrell, MedSurg RN, Bargaining Team