Following our union contract vote on Tuesday, June 23, we are proud to announce that our new successor Collective Bargaining Agreements were overwhelmingly ratified by a supermajority.
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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.
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
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. That is why MultiCare is pushing hard for it and that is also why it is such a problem.
Read MoreAfter ten months of determined advocacy and solidarity, we are excited to announce we have reached Tentative Agreements with the employer for strong three-year contracts for Service, Technical and RN units.
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“We may not have it all together but together we can have it all.” - Derek Howard, Engineer
We had a lot of productive discussions and the employer agreed to a quick turnaround for a bargaining session next Wednesday, June 3.
Wear your union buttons, stickers and union colors for solidarity with our Bargaining Team on June 2 and June 3.
Reach out to our union Rep Penny Cramer at 206-436-6559 if you have any questions.
Our Union Bargaining Team held our 11 and 12 bargaining sessions with MultiCare on May 19 and 26, respectively. On Tuesday afternoon, May 26, after a day of working with management to wrap up remaining issues, it became clear that despite our efforts, the Employer had already made up its mind on certain positions. Not only do these positions differ from what MultiCare has agreed to in the other two Union contracts within Capital Medical Center—but also from the existing UFCW 3000 contracts at Tacoma General, Mary Bridge, Auburn Medical Center, Covington Medical Center, and many more.
MultiCare’s position not only could weaken and undermine us as newly-organized Professionals at Capital Medical Center—but also has implications that could harm unionized workers across Washington State.
In response, our Union has urgently assigned a team of UFCW 3000 staff to reach out to every worker in this bargaining unit to discuss MultiCare’s position and its implications, and ensure that all Professionals at Capital Medical Center and beyond understand the next steps we may need to take.
Be on the lookout—we will be in touch.
In the meantime, attend our Contract Action Team meeting to learn more about ongoing negotiations and strategies to build power to win a strong first Union contract!
Thursday, May 28
7pm - 8pm
Zoom
Meeting ID: 857 7757 1974 / Passcode: 412935
Join Zoom Meeting >>
“There are crucial issues on the table that we have worked diligently to reach an agreement with MultiCare on, and all we have gotten back from the Employer is a continuous digging in of its heels. It feels like it might be time for us all to take a stand. We need to show MultiCare they cannot use us as a precedent, make an example of us, or undermine our Union by treating us differently from the other thousands of workers across Thurston, Pierce, and King Counties.”
Our Bargaining Team felt completely disrespected by the Employer after we waited a full day for the Employer to give us a proposal of any kind. We asked the Employer to come talk with us about our frustrations. When the Employer finally showed up an hour later, our team spoke about why union membership was so important to everyone.
Read MoreAfter months of bargaining, we have come to a tentative agreement with the Employer for the Mary Bridge Transfer RN accretion process. Through the agreement, we have placed everyone on the wage scale. The employer will have 30 days to review the placements to make sure they are accurate.
Read MoreOur bargaining session on April 20 was very productive. At the beginning of the day, we separated out into our bargaining units to have discussions about the remaining open issues in each contract
Read MoreOur bargaining session on March 30 was extremely productive as Management responded to the movement of our proposals with significant movement of their own. We were able to reach Tentative Agreements on a wide range of topics and are really narrowing down on the topics left.
While we made a lot of progress, the employer still did not present a wage scale and continued to insist that their market analysis was the best way to determine the raises that we would get throughout the term of the contract. Kimberly Vetter did an amazing job of addressing the employer’s points and countering them with data and anecdotal evidence. She didn’t back down from any of the employer’s challenges and stood her ground in a calm and collected manner.
Read MoreOn March 13, we received the Employer’s response and reached Tentative Agreements on several premiums and a shorter period for status review. We spent the rest of the day preparing counters to the Employer’s proposals. Our team prioritized the remaining articles left on the table and we are ready to present a counter on wages at our next bargaining date: March 27.
Read MoreWe had our eighth session on March 2. Overall, it was a good bargaining day, and the atmosphere seemed more positive than on previous dates. The Employer gave us a counter to a proposal we had regarding work periods and meal and rest breaks. We then spent a lot of time going over different articles to find compromises and really prioritize the articles that make the most positive impact on members’ working conditions.
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As we are working to move some clinic workers into the hospital contract, we have had to expand our bargaining to include people who currently fall under the clinic contract. The reason for this move is that several departments are operating under the hospital license, and it was determined they should be under the applicable hospital contract. This is beneficial to all members because we can bargain some of the more favorable terms from the clinic contract into the hospital contracts. We are working diligently to make sure that the affected clinic workers do not lose any rights or benefits by moving contracts, while strengthening the hospital contracts at the same time.
Bargaining on Thursday, February 26 felt productive. We received the Employer's response at 9:35am and worked the rest of the day to come back with responses. As mentioned previously, the clinic contract differs from the hospital contract, and we made sure to capture the terms (including premiums) that we wanted to carry over. At the end of the day, we left everything in their court and are awaiting responses on our next bargaining day: March 13.
It's good to see buttons and stickers popping up everywhere around the hospital! If you don't have yours yet, please see a Bargaining Team member or your Union Rep.
Thursday, March 19: Three Options
6am Zoom
11am - 2pm in-person: Conference Room 2 (third floor of the clinic side)
6pm Zoom
Come visit with your Rep, Penny, and get updates on how you can support your Bargaining Team and win a fair contract!
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 MoreWe 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.
