With ULPs on the horizon and a strike authorization in hand, we bargained late into the night two days this week. While some progress was made, the hospital is still short of meeting our priorities and continues to push their takeaways. We will not let that happen! Stay prepared and join us for all the upcoming Strike preparation meetings via ZOOM to learn more about the next steps in your fight for a best contract.
Our collective actions over the last two weeks have paid off in this bargaining session, and we are encouraged by the results! Management arrived prepared to engage and met with our team early in the day, replying to several outstanding proposals. Throughout the course of the day, we reached sixteen tentative agreements. One of these was a major breakthrough in our economic proposals – agreeing to the definitions of full time and part time employees. Thank you to our Contract Action Team members who pulled a lot of information to support the need for these definitions.
The union met with LabCorp on Wednesday, October 28, and once again received unacceptable, disrespectful proposals. LabCorp offers minimal, below-market wage increases, resists giving reasonable notice of outsourcing, and wants to strip away our rights and gain total power to change your health insurance whenever it chooses. The company blames upcoming Medicare reimbursement cuts for refusing to move closer to our proposals, but we are skeptical: LabCorp is thriving financially, its stock price is rising, and CEO Adam Schechter received $18,399,913 in compensation last year.
Grocery executives are working to grab every penny from their workers and members of our communities. Every contract negotiation is an opportunity to fight for what we deserve and work to steer the grocery industry back on track, to focus on what matters: delivering quality customer service and great products to feed our neighbors.
In our last contract negotiations, our union won the largest wage increases that we’ve seen, secured a transition to the stable our union health plan through the UFCW Spokane healthcare Trust, and ensured funding to keep our pension plan dependable for retirement. Our NE Oregon contracts recently expired, and our union is prioritizing a new contract that builds upon our previous wins.
After four long days of bargaining with the Employer and countless hours of preparation, our Bargaining Team reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) that we are excited to bring back to our members!
While our initial bargaining sessions were largely positive and relatively low stakes, we now have reached the meat and potato economic proposals that our unit cares about most. This is often the most challenging stage of bargaining – especially when bargaining a first contract. An example from today: in response to our extensively researched wage proposal, the company stated "we don't want to change how we do things" without further discussion.
As 2,500 UFCW 3000 members at MultiCare continue preparations for contract bargaining to begin early next year, there are several upcoming opportunities to gather, discuss and contribute. First off, a big thanks to all who completed the bargaining surveys during August and September. That information will be crucial in our assessing priorities before bargaining.
After holding nomination votes for the Labor Management Advisory Committee (LMAC) from September 21–25, 2026, and then holding nominee votes for Ballard, Central District, and Issaquah on October 21, 2026, we are happy to announce your committee members!
This agreement comes after more than six months of bargaining, an informational picket, federal mediation, a strike pledge campaign, and a strike authorization vote that showed CommonSpirit members were ready to fight for a better contract
After more than a month since our last session, our Union Bargaining Team; Alyssa and Oliver were able to reconvene with the employer on October 19 to receive their economic counter proposal.
Join us via Zoom on Tuesday, October 20, at 6:30 PM to learn more about the tentative agreement reached between our Union Bargaining Team and CommonSpirit.
“At a time when workers are struggling to keep up with sky-high prices for groceries, housing, health care, and other basic necessities, we cannot afford to give a tax cut to the wealthiest people in our state,” said Sam Dancy, UFCW 3000 Executive Board Vice President and Grocery Bargaining Team Member
Our member-led Bargaining Team met with representative from Puzzle Break to lay the foundation for the negotiations of our first union contract. We discussed guidelines around how proposals will be passed, Bargaining Team availability and our desire to have consistent and timely bargaining dates moving forward.
After months of difficult negotiations and a powerful show of solidarity, we have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract! Thanks to our collective strength, we secured significant improvements, including:
Please join us in person at the UFCW 3000 Des Moines office for Contract Action Team meetings on the following dates. We will be meeting in person at the union office, but for those who cannot join in person there will be an online option. During these meetings, will be sharing updates as well as creating picket signs for an upcoming info picket.
After months of difficult negotiations, a powerful informational picket, and an overwhelming strike authorization vote, our Union Bargaining Team fought late into the night on October 8 and reached a tentative agreement on a new contract!
The Nominations are in, now it’s time to vote for who will represent you and your coworkers from Ballard, Central District, and Issaquah PCCs on the newly formed PCC Labor Management Advisory Committee (LMAC). Secure online voting will take place Wednesday, October 21 from 8am to 8pm. Every PCC store elects one LMAC representative, you may only vote on a nominee from your own store.
Following a series of highly attended vote meetings on Monday, October 5, union technical workers at St. Joseph Medical Center voted nearly unanimously to:
Reject CommonSpirit’s subpar contract offer
Authorize a STRIKE
“We set the stage and gave our comprehensive proposal letting the employer know that our priorities are to win wages that we deserve, improve our transportation benefits, win immigration protection language as well as ensuring the safety of our co-workers. We are eager to see what BDA’s response is on the 21. ” -Kota Owens, Bargaining Team Member
On Tuesday, September 1, UFCW 3000 Service & Dietary members at St. Michael Medical Center voted UNANIMOUSLY to ratify our new three-year collective bargaining agreement!
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Bargaining Team: Susan Mayer, Cook; Pamela Reese, EVS.
On July 21, our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer and received its response to our latest economic proposal. While the Employer’s offer was disappointing, the session still resulted in meaningful progress.
After reviewing the Employer’s proposal, our team returned to work and finalized a major health care proposal that we have been developing behind the scenes for weeks. If accepted by the Employer, this proposal would significantly reduce what workers pay for health insurance while also substantially lowering deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs.
The proposal would provide Service and Dietary workers with the same health insurance plan currently available to the Pro-Tech unit, the Sound Health & Wellness Trust, creating long-overdue parity between the two bargaining units.
The comparison below shows the potential savings under the proposed Sound Health & Wellness Trust.
| Healthcare Cost Comparison | Biweekly Employee Premiums (each paycheck) | Deductible | Out-of-Pocket Maximums | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employee Only | Employee + Child(ren) | Employee + Spouse | Family Plan | Individual | Family | Individual | Family | ||
| Sound Health & Wellness Trust | Kaiser HMO | $18.00 | $26.00 | $38.00 | $46.00 | $750 | $1,500 | $2,750 | $5,500 |
| Premera PPO | $22.00 | $34.00 | $46.00 | $50.00 | $750 | $1,500 | $2,750 | $5,500 | |
| Employer's Current Medical Plan Options | Integrated Core | $68.02 | $192.26 | $161.32 | $277.59 | $1,500 | $3,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| Integrated Basic | $20.00 | $139.39 | $114.84 | $196.77 | $2,500 | $5,000 | $6,600 | $13,200 | |
| Integrated HDHP | $0.00 | $85.53 | $72.40 | $126.62 | $3,400 | $6,800 | $6,450 | $12,900 | |
| Sound Health & Wellness Trust premiums include medical, dental, and vision coverage and are the same for all eligible workers, regardless of hours worked. The Employer rates shown are full-time medical premiums only; dental and vision coverage cost extra. Part-time employees pay higher premiums under the Employer’s plans than the rates listed above. | |||||||||
Sound Health & Wellness Trust premiums include medical, dental, and vision coverage and are the same for all eligible workers, regardless of hours worked. The Employer rates shown are full-time medical premiums only; dental and vision coverage cost extra. Part-time employees pay higher premiums under the Employer’s plans than the rates listed above.
Furthermore, the Sound Health & Wellness Trust only requires 60 hours in a month to qualify for employee-only coverage or 80 hours in a month to qualify for dependent coverage. The plan costs the same for all workers, regardless of whether they are full-time or part-time.
Combined with market-based wage increases and improvements to shift, weekend, and other premiums, these health care changes would go a long way toward addressing the hospital’s ongoing recruitment and retention problems.
We left the meeting encouraged by management’s initial response to the proposal. While the Employer has not yet agreed to these changes, management expressed a willingness to continue the conversation. Our Bargaining Team is excited to keep pushing toward what could be a truly historic improvement for workers covered by this contract.
August 5
We look forward to receiving the Employer’s response to our proposed health care changes.
“I feel that this day is going to go down in history.”
— Susan Mayer
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.
July 9, 2026
4pm
Our Bargaining Team:
Vanessa Rosadino, Dietary Caterer
Christy Sammons, EVS Relief
Susan Meyer, Dietary Cook
Pam Reese, EVS Discharge
After many months of bargaining, we finally have a tentative agreement. We worked hard to get a contract that works for all! We won historic wage increases that can help recruit and retain qualified staff!
We also won:
New wage scales and job classifications
Filled in all ghost steps
Pay for call in advance of shift
Management will pay for certifications including food handler’s card!
Pandemic Language
And other great wins!
“We did it! We are DONE!!!”
— Pam Reese
“This is a historic contract. I have never seen such high percentages in my 20 years of working here! “
— Susan Meyer
“I am so happy for our new contract. We worked really hard and we got a successful contract and we encourage everyone to vote YES!”
— Vanessa Rosadino
“We worked really hard to get a contract that will help us recruit and retain new workers! “
— Christy Sammons
Please keep stay tune for more information about vote times so you can vote on your new contract!
If you have any questions, please reach out to your Bargaining Team.
Today members at St. Michael Medical Center ratified the proposed addition of a 12-hour schedule agreement for the new Dietary Unit Host position. This new memorandum of understanding (MOU) will only affect members classified as Dietary Unit Hosts and DOES NOT enable the medical center to utilize the 12-hour schedule with any other positions. Thank you to everyone who participated in the vote and made your voice heard!
If you have any questions please reach out to your Union Representative Ryan Degouveia at (360) 662-1989
We are happy to announce that the Harrison Medical Center Service & Dietary contract was ratified this afternoon by an overwhelming majority! We won substantial wage increases, new short-term personal leave, improved schedule posting language, as well as many other improvements.
We met with Management on May 19 and made progress on outstanding issues such as ensuring new hires receive adequate training, addressing harassment in the workplace, and reassurances that our contract will withstand any future mergers.
We remain apart on wages and are still fighting for wage increases that will both retain workers and attract new hires by having increases in every year of our contract. We are committed to fighting for a fair contract that invests in our future and ensures that wages at Harrison Medical Center are competitive with other employers in the region, that we have reliable costs for our healthcare and are treated with dignity and respect at work.
If you have any questions, please contact your Union Rep Ryan Degouveia @ 360-662-1989.
“We, the essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, deserve a fair contract with wage increases that invest in our future.”
Harrison Service & Dietary Bargaining Team
“Please join us for our first virtual Contract Action Team meeting next Tuesday May 19 @ 7:30pm!”
Harrison Medical Center Pro-Tech Bargaining Team
CHI Harrison Medical Center Service & Dietary + Pro-Tech Contract Action Team Meeting
Tuesday, May 19 - 7:30PM
RSVP to get call join info
PRO-TECH UPDATE
Your Bargaining Team met with Management again on May 5, 12, and 14. We have come to agreements with the employer to improve language regarding schedule posting, promotions, new hire orientation, and safety.
However, we are still fighting the employer to protect our Union healthcare, maintain successorship language that has protected our contract through recent mergers, create a member driven emergency preparedness team, and fair wage increases that keep Harrison Medical Center market competitive. Our next bargaining dates are June 5, 12, and 14.
If you have any questions, please contact your Union Rep Aimee Oien @ 360-662-1981.
BARGAINING TEAM: Judy Shoesmith, Kain Mcleod, Connie Baker, Rob Shauger, Don Szabo, Ona Burkett, Sonja Hammes
SERVICE & DIETARY UPDATE
Your Bargaining Team met with Management on May 8 and achieved improvements on schedule postings, new hire orientation, safety, and won a new short-term personal leave benefit.
However, we continue to fight Management to maintain successorship language that has protected our contract through recent mergers, ensure adequate training for new hires, job positing transparency, create a member driven emergency preparedness team, and fair wage increases that keep Harrison Medical Center market competitive. Our next bargaining date is May 19.
If you have any questions, please contact your Union Rep Ryan Degouveia @ 360-662-1989.
BARGAINING TEAM: Bobby Harris, Susan Mayer
PRO-TECH UPDATE
Your Bargaining Team met with Managament on April 23, 25, and 28. We are committed to fighting for a fair contract that maintains our Union healthcare and ensures our contract survives any future mergers or acquisitions.
We have also made proposals to address issues regarding scheduling time off, easier access to education and professional meetings, improved safety language, and market competitive wages that keep up with the rising cost of living. Our next bargaining date is May 5.
If you have any questions, please contact your Union Rep Aimee Oien @ 360-662-1981.
“Although we met virtually, we are standing together for a fair contract.”
Harrison Medical Center Pro-Tech Bargaining Team
Judy Shoesmith, Kain Mcleod, Connie Baker, Rob Shauger, Don Szabo, Ona Burkett, Sonja Hammes
SERVICE & DIETARY UPDATE
Your Bargaining Team met with Management on April 13, 20, and 27. We submitted our initial proposals that aim to strengthen language regarding scheduling, increased transparency of job postings, stronger safety committees, maintaining healthcare costs, and market competitive wages that keep up with the rising cost of living. Our next bargaining date is May 8.
If you have any questions, please contact your Union Rep Ryan Degouveia @ 360-662-1989.
“Our first couple of bargaining dates were productive and we are looking forward to getting a contract that we can all be proud of!”
Harrison Medical Center Service & Dietary Bargaining Team
Bobby Harris, Susan Mayer, Bill A Lieseke
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.
Correcting the Record: Decades after Organizing Her Own Unit, Leslie Ball Is Still Fighting for Her Coworkers
Leslie Ball, a certified surgical technologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and a longtime UFCW 3000 Union Steward, has spent decades standing up for herself and her coworkers.
Her fight for better working conditions began in the late 1990s, when she received a 30-cent wage increase, which ended up only being a five-cent raise after her employer reduced her shift differential by a quarter. With years of experience and a deep understanding of the value surgical techs bring to the table, she knew a nickel wasn’t going to cut it. So she and a coworker, Gail Miller, started organizing their colleagues at St. Joe's despite warnings that previous organizing efforts had failed.
Within a year, they helped Radiology, Respiratory Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and other departments form the hospital’s first Technical Unit, which ratified its first contract in 1999.
Jenny C., a transporter at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, knows what it looks like when management hopes a problem will just go away.
Jenny has watched the facility's transport elevators malfunction for more than a year, filing report after report after each incident she witnessed. Supervisors did not appear to take these complaints seriously.
