UFCW 3000 Member Story: Colleen Balestreri
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By day, Colleen works in the Lab at Tacoma General as a Med Tech. Outside of work, she conquers Ironman competitions.
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It’s Time to Act: The Campaign for a Safe Staffing Law in Washington State Is HERE
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Join the launch of our statewide campaign to ensure that we can care for patients safely, retain qualified staff, recruit new people into our industry, and create sustainable and resilient healthcare systems for our communities.
Together, we’ll discuss the details of our legislative proposal and our plan to win real change for healthcare workers statewide.
Telephone Town Hall and Campaign Launch
TODAY - Monday, December 13
6:00 pm
Union members will receive a call at 6:00 pm on Monday 12/13. See your email or text messages for call details, or speak with your union shop steward, delegate, representative, or organizer.
RELEASE: Washington hospitals on the brink of unprecedented crisis; health care workers and patients need immediate action from hospitals
/FOR RELEASE: Sept. 13, 2021
WA hospitals on the brink of unprecedented crisis
Preexisting staff shortages have reached critical levels; nurses, health care workers and patients need immediate action from hospitals
SEATTLE -- The reality cannot be overstated: Washington hospitals are on the brink of a crisis, and without immediate and impactful action to retain and attract critical workers the state’s health care system could face an unprecedented collapse in capacity and care.
Hospitals across the state have warned of massive staffing shortfalls and collapses in capacity. Now the Washington State Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, and UFCW 21 — who collectively represent 71,000 nurses and other healthcare workers — are urging hospitals to use the tools they have available to mitigate this crisis by retaining and adequately compensating current staff and filling under-staffed departments to ensure patient safety and access to care.
“Amid a fifth wave of COVID, spurred on by the Delta variant, and hospitals overflowing with patients who need critical care, our state health care workers continue to heroically perform their jobs a year-and-a-half into this pandemic,” said Julia Barcott, chair of the WSNA Cabinet and an ICU nurse at Astria Toppenish Hospital. “But nurses and other frontline workers are people, too. We’re losing overworked nurses to overwhelming burnout, the distress of working short-staffed, better-paying traveler nurse jobs and even for signing bonuses of up to $20,000 to move to a different hospital. We’re worried for our patients and the impact of the staffing crisis on the care they receive.”
This isn’t just a crisis for frontline workers, it’s also a public health crisis. Because hospitals were already understaffed well before the coronavirus pandemic hit, we are now seeing a new story every day about a regional hospital at maximum capacity. Without immediately addressing the shortage of staff and untenable workloads for frontline workers, there could be dire consequences to Washington’s health care infrastructure.
“Chronic understaffing is a disaster for patient care. Health care workers don’t want to see patients stuck in overflowing ICUs or being treated in ER hallways, or be forced to turn away ambulances at the door, but that’s the reality of health care right now,” said Faye Guenther, UFCW 21 president. “Hospitals need to immediately respond to this patient care crisis. That means focusing on meaningful, sustainable solutions that will recruit and retain qualified caregivers in every department.”
As many anti-vaccination activists falsely conflate the staffing crisis with looming vaccine deadlines for health care workers, it's important to understand that health care staffing shortages predate the coronavirus pandemic. As a result of years’ of staffing and management decisions, many hospitals already didn’t meet adequate staffing for average patient levels. COVID exacerbated this already strained infrastructure, and hospitals’ response to the pandemic has only worsened this preexisting crisis.
“What’s really driving this crisis is that hospitals have spent the last two decades balancing their budgets on the backs of health care workers and patients,” said Jane Hopkins, RN, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “COVID has been a stress test on our health care system, and we are seeing the system fail that test due to management’s choice to understaff. Retention bonuses for frontline workers who have stayed on the job, adequate pay for extra hours worked, and aggressive hiring to staff at full capacity would go a long way right now.”
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About SEIU Healthcare 1199NW
SEIU Healthcare 1199NW is a union of nurses and healthcare workers with over 30,000 caregivers throughout hospitals, clinics, mental health, skilled home health and hospice programs in Washington state and Montana. SEIU Healthcare 1199NW’s mission is to advocate for quality care and good jobs for all.
About WSNA
WSNA is the leading voice and advocate for nurses in Washington state, providing representation, education and resources that allow nurses to reach their full professional potential and focus on caring for patients. WSNA represents more than 19,000 registered nurses for collective bargaining who provide care in hospitals, clinics, schools and community and public health settings across the state.
About UFCW 21
UFCW 21 is working to build a powerful union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and our communities. We represent over 45,000 workers in retail, grocery stores, health care, and other industries in Washington state.
Providence Everett Nurses Ratify New Contract by 97%
/New Contract Addresses Safety, Staffing, Health Care and Other Issues
Everett, WA – All day today Nurses at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett came together to vote on a proposed Tentative Agreement for a new contract. The votes were just counted. The Nurse voted by 97% to approve the proposed contract.
“We came into these negotiations hoping to improve our workplace for ourselves and our patients. I’m thrilled that so many Nurses, with support from our community, stood together and we were able to succeed in this goal. Now we need to stay active to make this contract deliver what it should for ourselves and our patients.”
“We made significant progress in all of our critical areas of concern: Staffing and Safety, Competitive Wages, Health Care and Respect”
Some details on top priorities achieved in the new contract include:
Staffing & Safety and a Voice in the Workplace
Fix broken process (CSI) that Nurses use to report staffing concerns and protect Nurses from harassment when they use this process. Within one month of ratification, Nurse Staffing Committee will convene special taskforce to address CSI process
A nurse staffing steering committee will be established and maintained in accordance with state law. The Nurse Staffing Steering Committee will oversee unit-based nurse staffing committees, and will adopt a charter for the unit-based nurse staffing committees
Staffing — within two weeks of ratification an action plan with benchmarks and targets to address chronic/recurring staffing issues will be created. If the parties are unable to come to an agreement on an action plan, they may request expedited mediation with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). After the evaluation meeting, either party may request a return to an FMCS mediator for expedited assistance
Allows for issues to be taken to VP of Support Services in writing if not solved in 30 days
Leave for Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking
No Increased Costs for Health Care Plan
- Employer will continue to provide the health plans in 2016 and 2017 with no reduction in the amount of the health incentive funding for any of these plans, no reduction in the Employer’s percentage of premium coverage, and no material changes to the in-network deductibles or in-network out of pocket maximums
- Employer will have to notify the Union of any proposed changes to the plan during the contract term and negotiate any changes
Respect for Nurses’ Union and our Role in the Workplace
- Improves strength of Union in the workplace with more shop stewards, access to Union information at work and allows stewards for Safety and Staffing and new employee orientations
- Membership Clause updated to discourage Management from encouraging membership withdrawal at end of the contract
- Improvements to address issues for Nurses such as putting more limitations on the number of times one can be low censused or floated during a shift
Compensation to Help Recruit and Retain Quality Nursing Staff
- More funds for educational expenses
- And across the board increase in waged by 3+ % for the three years of the contract
- Bonus: Part Time Nurse Bonus: Part time nurses who meet the specific criteria will be eligible for a $500 bonus on the first pay period of January 2017
