We began our ninth session on February 9 with MultiCare by receiving the Employer’s proposal, which included some tentative agreements on shift differentials for RNs and Technical CBAs (Service was already above market), but left a lot of outstanding issues, including Charge Nurses, Staffing and Low Census, amongst others.
Read MoreOur team was informed at 7:20am that the Employer negotiator was sick. However, the Employer provided us with a proposal early in the morning that allowed us to work throughout the day. We were able to compile a response that we will be ready to present to the Employer at our next session on February 18.
In the meantime, our team is working on preparing strike pledge cards for all of us to sign! While a strike pledge card is not binding (that would require a vote of the entire bargaining unit), it is a great sign to the Employer of our seriousness. It indicates that we are ready to escalate our fight to get a fair contract. The pledge cards will be sent out shortly, and we encourage all of you to sign and show our solidarity!
As this campaign is moving along, we feel like scheduling regular Contract Action Team meetings to keep everyone informed. The cadence of these meetings will be every two weeks, and the next one is scheduled for February 19 from 7pm to 8pm. Please join us!
Bargaining Team: Amy Myrtue Nelson, Kimberly Vetter, Sela Smith, Tammy Taylor, Callie Hills (not pictured)
On Wednesday, February 4, our Bargaining Team representing the newly-unionized Pediatric Transfer Center RNs at Mary Bridge met with MultiCare for our first day of negotiations on how our group will enter into the existing RN Union contract.
Nurses working in the Pediatric Transfer Center won our Union election—certifying that we will be represented members of UFCW Local 3000—in late summer 2025. Because we will be joining the existing RN contract which already covers the majority of workplace topics like wages, working conditions, hours of work and overtime, we will engage in bargaining over the acquisition of our department into the larger contract.
For the most part, this results in a relatively more straightforward type of contract negotiations with the Employer. A direct example is the Memorandum of Understanding our team put together to present to MultiCare, which contained only five sections: seniority, PTO Requests and Accruals, floating and scheduling provisions within the Pediatric Transfer Center—and importantly—how our non-Union wages will be converted to placement on the Union contract wage scale. Unfortunately, this is where things seemed to get a bit more complicated in terms of management's position. In fact, placement on the wage scales remains the only piece we did not reach mutually agreed-upon language on.
While we proposed that placement would be based on credit for our years of nursing experience—with the important clarifier that this would not result in any decrease to our current wages if we're currently paid above where we would land on the Union scale based on experience—the Employer rejected the language that this placement would not decrease our wages. This theoretically opens up the possibility for a decrease in wages if our current rate is above that of the Union wage scale rate.
What's even more aggravating about this response is that MultiCare has agreed to follow a nearly identical process for several newly organized units across the past few years, meaning that what we are asking for is not anything more than what MultiCare has already agreed to for plenty of other unionized workers.
Unfortunately, our teams were not able to come to an agreement on our placement on the wage scales by the end of our scheduled session, and so we will now work to coordinate additional bargaining dates to continue these discussions. We're looking forward to winning a fair Agreement that respects our years of RN experience without compromising what we're already being paid by MultiCare.
Pediatric Transfer Center RN Bargaining Team: Kate Kersen, Megan Little
January 22, 2026
On Thursday, January 22, we met for the fifth time with the Employer and presented our entire proposal back to them. Across our most recent series of proposals, we have taken management's feedback into consideration and amended a number of our proposals to align closer to the existing contract language within the RN and Service/Office/Technical CBAs at Capital Medical Center—as opposed to language more closely aligned with the remainder of the MultiCare System, like Auburn Medical Center or Tacoma General. Considering many of these contracts are aligned with intent, we did question management as to why their proposals offer less beneficial versions of the Capital Medical Center contract's language. Their response was that we have not had the history of bargaining that the other units do. However, we disagree with their position and do not feel that fewer bargaining cycles should translate to a less desirable contract! This includes their reluctance to include a wage scale in their proposal but rather rely on their analysis for our wages and any future raises.
Prior to the end of the day, we were able to come to an agreement on Discipline and Discharge and Personnel File language that allowed for documented corrective actions to not be considered for future discipline if no similar occurrences have occurred within one year after the write up was issued.
We are planning a Contract Action Team meeting on February 4 at 6pm to discuss how our negotiations are going and our plans moving forward.
Please reach out to your Bargaining Team members or Penny Cramer (your Union Rep) if you would like Union swag and/or have any questions.
Our Union Bargaining Team reconvened with Covington Medical Center management Wednesday January 21 for our first bargaining session of 2026 and our seventh overall. We commend management for coming to the table prepared for the first time.
Read MoreOn Friday, January 9, we met with MultiCare for our fourth session of union contract negotiations. We started off our day by providing Management with our responses to a number of articles following our previous bargaining session; including language on hours of work and overtime, paid time off, medical/personal/and educational leaves of absence, health insurance benefits, and a grievance procedure. After returning these articles to Management, all of the outstanding contract items were in MultiCare’s court to work on and respond to.
Read MoreAfter another full day of bargaining, the employer has failed yet again to provide comprehensive responses that we can meaningfully respond to. We feel the employer is continuing to frustrate the bargaining process with the lack of responses in a timely manner and lack of respect for our time…
Read MoreWe 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.
A Tentative Agreement has been reached between MultiCare and UFCW 3000 regarding the restructure of the Distribution Specialist and Patient Transport positions, and new Patient Equipment Transport Services ("PETS") job classification.
The Memorandum of Understanding (addition to our Collective Bargaining Agreement) outlines how currently-employed Distribution Specialists and Transporters who are moving to the new PETS position will be paid on the wage scale following implementation, as well as the pay scale for the PETS role, and clarifiers around seniority and date of step (longevity) increases for current workers.
We encourage all members in good standing to attend our scheduled vote meetings to review the MOU, ask questions, and cast your ballot:
Tuesday, December 30
6am - 8am
Tacoma General Hospital (Bunker Conference Room)
Our meeting with MultiCare on December 5 left us hoping for more. Over the previous two sessions, we provided Management with a significant majority of our non-economic and economic proposals.
Read MoreYesterday, November 25, our union Bargaining Team representing the RNs, Service and Tech workers met with the Employer for the second time.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, November 19, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our third formal session with MultiCare! We have primarily been exchanging non-economic articles back and forth while we await the Employer’s first economic proposal.
Read MoreOn Thursday, November 7, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our second formal session with MultiCare! With the end of our second bargaining day behind us, we have now presented the Employer with the entirety of our proposals and have now started to receive responses from management on a number of the non-economic articles.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, August 27, our Bargaining Team met with the Management for our first official day of negotiations on our first union contract! We passed along most of our proposals to the Employer and are waiting for their response at the next session. Overall, we felt it was a very productive day!
Read MoreOur union Bargaining Team representing the Professionals at MultiCare Capital Medical Center is excited to announce that we have our first bargaining date on the books, scheduled for October 21, to kick-off negotiations for our first union contract!
Read MoreWe began bargaining for a new contract in late May, and after nearly five months of negotiations, we are proud to announce that we reached an agreement with Capital Medical. From the very start, our priority was clear: secure a contract that is competitive with Providence St. Peter and win some of the language that staff at other MultiCare hospitals already have.
Read MoreAfter nearly 11 hours at the bargaining table, we walked away without a deal. Capital Medical Center management continues to oppose some of our proposals on critical issues: safe staffing, fair wages, incentive and extra shift pay, meal and rest breaks, continuing education, PTO, FMLA, and health insurance.
Read MoreWe’ve been steadily working through non-economic proposals, going back and forth on contract language that needed cleaning up or clarification. We’ve reached a few Tentative Agreements (TAs) so far.
Read MoreFollowing a day of vote meetings at the Puyallup, Sunrise, & Bonney Lake Women’s Center clinics on Monday, March 3, our union bargaining team are proud to announce that our agreement has been ratified UNANIMOUSLY!
Read MoreFollowing just two bargaining dates with MultiCare management to negotiate the terms and conditions of Women's Center employees' entry into the UFCW 3000/MultiCare Clinics union contract, our bargaining team is overjoyed to announce that we have come to a tentative agreement!
So what does that mean?
Simply put, this means that our union bargaining team has reached a final agreement with MultiCare on the part of the contract which will outline how we officially join the clinics Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The reason this is called a tentative agreement is because the next step is that we all vote on whether we accept the agreement. Permitting the majority of us agree, the process set forth will begin.
We have scheduled votes for all of you to come by, review the agreement, and cast your ballot! We encourage all newly-represented Women's Center employees to attend, and as such we've worked to coordinate votes at all three locations:
Meeting rooms are pending confirmation from the Employer, an update will be sent from UFCW once verified!
Monday, March 3, 2025:
Puyallup MultiCare Women's Center
7:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Sunrise MultiCare Women's Center
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Bonney Lake MultiCare Women's Center
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
"This entire process, from organizing our union, winning our election, then meeting with management to negotiate our Agreement, has been tough- but we're so proud to say that we have come to an Agreement that benefits all members at the Women's Centers!"
—Carol Kring
Your Bargaining Team L-R: Liam Hughes, Medical Assistant @ Sunrise Women's Clinic; Tracey Fleming, Nurse Navigator @ Puyallup Women's Clinic; Carol Krings, Medical Receptionist @ Puyallup Women's Clinic.
We are the Union. The members of UFCW 3000 are over 50,000 members working in grocery, retail, health care, meat packing, cannabis, & other industries across Washington state, north-east Oregon, and northern Idaho. UFCW 3000 is a chartered member of UFCW International with over 1.4 million workers in North America.
To build a powerful Union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.
