On Thursday, August 1, we held our ratification vote for our new Collective Bargaining Agreement, and we are pleased to announce it was ratified with a large majority of those voting “Yes” to approve the offer!
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On Thursday, July 11, our union Bargaining Team had another bargaining session with WhidbeyHealth. Between June 13 and this past Thursday, we have moved closer to a complete contract for your approval. We have finished most of the non-economic pieces and now we are focused on what remains –wages, parity, and a ratification bonus.
Read MoreOn Thursday, June 13, our Bargaining Team had a bargaining session with WhidbeyHealth.Between our May 23 negotiations and this past Thursday, we have come very close to wrapping up both parties' non-economic proposals.
Read MoreOn May 23, our union Bargaining Team met with Management and received their second set of economic proposals.
Read MoreOn Thursday, May 2, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our scheduled bargaining session. We were able to provide responses on the remaining non-economic issues as well as put forward a comprehensive initial response to Management’s economic proposals.
We are encouraged that they have proposed to have our shift differentials, weekend premium (including consecutive weekend premium) and certification pay increased to be the same as the Professional and Technical unit. However, their proposal regarding getting everyone in our unit to 100% credit on the wage scales for past work experience would not get everyone to their proper step as quickly as it did in the Professional and Technical unit! As such, we pushed back with a counter proposal that would not have more senior employees waiting until the last year of the contract for this credit.
We have another bargaining session scheduled this month for Thursday, May 23 and are hoping we can come to a Tentative Agreement we can recommend soon. If there are questions, please speak with us, or call Union Representative Celia Ponce-Sanchez at (360) 419 4678.
Our Bargaining Team: Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator (pictured above); Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services
-Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services (not pictured)
Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer on last Thursday, April 4, during which Whidbey Health presented its comprehensive economic proposal. They were able to share the improvement in the financial stability of the organization and their commitment to retention and recruitment of the workforce.
The Employer included proposals for the Professional and Technical units that encompassed wage parity for years of experience and market wage increases at the beginning of the scales to attract new talent.Our team will review their proposals in detail in the next few days as we prepare to counter their proposal with fair wages and other economic items. We believe there is room for improvement and look forward to meeting with them again to negotiate a fair contract in good faith.
Our Bargaining Team: Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator; Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services.
Our Bargaining Team: Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator; Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services
On February 22, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our second bargaining session. Both sides of the table presented proposals on multiple non-economic issues and came to tentative agreements on many of these. Throughout the process our Team felt that genuine progress was made.
Some items we are still in discussion about include:
Lead assignments and how they are determined
Remote and hybrid work
Assignment of mandatory overtime
In our next session on Thursday, April 4, we will be delving into economics, including wages.
As Bargaining Team members, we feel it is important to get involved, and are learning about the process throughout these sessions! We take pride in the fact that we are at the table to represent all of our service and support co-workers.
We encourage our Union siblings to reach out to us to ask if there are questions about the bargaining process, or call Union Rep Celia Ponce-Sanchez @ 360-419 4678.
“We made movement today and feel that Management is listening to our proposals on these issues…” -Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services, Bargaining Team member
“As a first-time Bargaining Team member I regret not getting involved sooner in past contract bargains and am realizing now that knowledge is power!” -Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator, Bargaining Team member
On Monday, January 22, our Union Bargaining Team met with Management for our first joint session. We presented some non-economic proposals and also continued discussions about other proposals amongst ourselves in our own Union caucus.
In the coming weeks between now and our next joint session, we intend to develop more proposals (both non-economic and economic) in order to prepare to meet with Management again on February 22.
"Management was willing to hear our initial proposals and we had a productive day of negotiations. They also were open to hearing what we had to say about application and security of lead roles. We look forward to our next bargaining session."
— Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services.
Bargaining Team Member:Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services; Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator
On Wednesday, December 13, the WhidbeyHealth collective bargaining agreement for professional and technical workers was ratified, with 98% of those voting “Yes” to approve the tentative agreement!
Our Bargaining Team wishes to congratulate everyone on their contract and thank them for their patience throughout 2023 as we negotiated this agreement.
Ratification bonuses of $1,200 pro-rated by FTE (for instance, a .5 FTE will receive $600) will be on our pay checks this December 22, less standard deductions.
“We are happy to have been able to help facilitate settling this contract. Getting paid for our ‘real’ experience is huge! We’re always looking for co-workers to get involved in this process to help continue to support one another.”- Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead
Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy.
On November 28 and November 30 our Bargaining Team met again with the Employer to negotiate. While continuing to try to come to an agreement over economic issues, and in particular the wage scale, we were somewhat surprised that the Employer presented us with a Last, Best, and Final offer on all outstanding issues. This means that a vote on what that offer is will be forthcoming on Wednesday, December 13. While we had not expected to have to make this decision quite yet, we are recommending a “Yes” vote to ratify the offer.
Some of the highlights include:
Wage parity as of April 1, 2024: We secured agreement that WhidbeyHealth would recognize past experience for represented workers at 100%. Many of our more senior employees who may be in the middle of the wage scale would move up the scale if they have more years of experience in their job classification than the step they are on actually represents. This will happen in the coming year if we approve the contract.
Market adjustments of wage scales: When the mid-cycle wage bargain happened in 2022 the result was that many people further up the scale received increases that put them ahead of what workers earn at competing hospitals. This also resulted in workers on the earlier steps of the wage scale earning less than what workers earn at competing hospitals. Thus, management concentrated on increases at the lower steps in this bargaining cycle.
Ratification bonuses: If we ratify the contract with a “Yes” vote on Wednesday, December 13, we will receive $1,200 ratification bonuses pro-rated by FTE. For example if you are a .5, you will receive $600.
Main Hospital Coupeville HEC Room C: 5:00am—8:00am, 12pm—2:00pm, 5:00pm—8:00
Clinic 1: Oak Harbor-Cabot Break Room: 3:30pm—4:30pm
Clinic 2: Oak Harbor -Goldie Conference Room: 2:30pm—3:00pm
Clinic: Freeland Break Room: 10:00am—10:30am
Clinic: Clinton Break Room: 9:00am—9:30am
We look forward to seeing you at the following times to discuss the offer and vote on it. Members in good standing are eligible to vote.
Our Union Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy
Our Union Bargaining Team met with WhidbeyHealth Management on October 12 for a half-day bargaining session. We provided a counter-proposal to Management's last economic proposal. Their counterproposal from the same day was a reiteration of their previous one as far as wages were concerned—they continued to offer a complicated "market-based" set of wage scale adjustments, with altered percentages between steps on the scale, different wage increases for different job classifications, and so forth.
We will be working between now and our next bargaining session on October 26 to analyze their proposal in greater detail so that we may find some way to get to a tentative agreement we can recommend a "YES" vote on.
If you have any questions, please call Union Representative Celia Ponce-Sanchez at (360) 409-0574.
Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy
“For the second bargaining session in a row, we saw nothing new from Management. They proposed inconsistent wage scale changes that we find disappointing.” - Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead
Our Union Bargaining Team met with WhidbeyHealth Management on October 3 for a half-day bargaining session. Management provided a counter-proposal to our last economic proposal. While a number of issues are resolved or are closer to being resolved, wage scales continue to be a sticking point.
Our Bargaining Team has been advocating for “across-the-board” percentage wage increases across all steps and job classifications, whereas Management’s proposals have been inconsistent across steps as well as across job classifications. While their proposed market adjustments for wage rates are based on national data, we feel that our specific job market is unique. We also feel that a simple across-the-board raise for everyone would be the fairest idea.
We will continue to work towards a solution both parties can agree to, but are somewhat far apart on what wage scales should look like moving forward.
Our next bargaining session: Thursday, October 12
Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy
If you have any questions, please call Union Rep Celia Ponce-Sanchez @ 360-409 0574.
On Tuesday, August 8, our union Bargaining Team met with Management hoping to see their response to our comprehensive economic proposal we presented to them on July 26. Management was not prepared with a response on wages and showed an overall lack of willingness to move on other economic issues. When they informed us they would not have a counter proposal on wages that day, we asked for more bargaining dates. Unfortunately, their availability was limited to the end of August or beginning of September, so we will not return to the table until September 8, with a second session scheduled for September 13.
“We are disappointed that Management came to bargaining unprepared after having nearly two weeks since our last bargaining session to craft a response.”
— Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead, Whidbey Health
On Tuesday, August 15, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, our Bargaining Team will be holding a small event at City Beach in Oak Harbor (on the Starbucks side) to update interested members in-person on the bargaining process and ways to get involved and take action! We will have snacks and light refreshments and a drawing for surprise door prizes. Please RSVP with Union Representative Celia Ponce-Sanchez if possible by phone at (360) 409-0574 (but all are welcome!)
Join us on Tuesday, August 15!
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
City Beach in Oak Harbor (Starbucks side)
1600 S. Beeksma Drive
Oak Harbor, WA 98277
Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy
On Wednesday, July 26, our bargaining team got tentative agreements on almost all non-economics—including strong language on non-discrimination, as well as language stating that we only have to give 14 days-notice for resignation instead of 21 days.
We proposed our economic proposals today and expect to hear back with counters from WhidbeyHealth at our next bargaining session on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. We asked for significant across the board increases, language on experience for experience, stronger over-time language, higher differentials and more. We are hopeful that WhidbeyHealth will continue to bargain in good faith and understand that patient safety means we need higher-wages to retain and recruit more staff!
Our Bargaining Team: Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy; Jennifer MaCNeill, Lab
We are at the tail end of non-economics but have a few items not tentatively agreed upon. We are still holding strong to 14 days-notice to submit a resignation, but WhidbeyHealth disagrees and wants a fulfillment of 21 days-notice.
We also continued to propose our non-discrimination language that included timelines to ensure that with a complaint, our voices are heard and an investigation is started. WhidbeyHealth has told us they are not interested in responding to non-discrimination language within a 30 day timeline. They told us that their final offer was to have no timeline for a response. All we are asking from WhidbeyHealth is to ensure their employees can find out if their discrimination concerns are being heard and investigated. If there are discrimination issues at work, shouldn’t we be confident that the Employer is looking into those complaints within 30 days?
We were supposed to be bargaining the week of June 26, but WhidbeyHealth has canceled our bargaining date for that week. We will be passing out stickers to wear the week of the June 26.
WhidbeyHealth Bargaining Team:
Jennifer MacNeill, Lab; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy
Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, LabRosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy
Bargaining Update—Day One
April 19, 2023
On Wednesday, April 19, our bargaining team met with management for our first joint negotiation session. We provided management with non-economic proposals on a myriad of topics including, part-time employees, shop steward, Job descriptions, Termination Notice, Nondiscrimination, and much more. We were eager to hear the management’s responses to our initial proposals at our next meeting on June 1, where we also planned to propose more improvements to our union contract. Our team will continue to work hard at the table to get us a strong new contract, but we can’t do it alone. We need the support of all of our coworkers behind us if we are going to get real solutions to the big issues we face!
Bargaining Update—Day Two
June 1, 2023
In the second day of bargaining, the Union proposed language on non-economic issues. Once the non-economic issues are resolved, the Union will propose economic proposals. Bargaining this time around with Whidbey Health is moving quicker than before, as they have hired a new lawyer to represent them. This has allowed us to have multiple proposals and counter proposals passed back and forth. We hope this continues through this bargaining process.
On June 1, we got Tentative Agreements on language around:
Semi-annual seniority roster updates
Job Postings
Masterlists/ Status Reports
New Employee Orientation
Bulletin Boards
Political Action Fund Deductions
Bargaining for new Collective Bargaining Agreement and Unpaid Time Off
Our bargaining team continues to fight for language on non-discrimination including changing your badge and email names, over-time for innovative work schedules, Internal Equity, Definitions, Work week and work day language, Labor management committee, Equity Review, and ensuring you only have to give 14 days notice to resign and more. We are hoping to quickly move to resolve the rest of these articles so we can move onto the economic portion of the bargaining.
Please join us for one of our upcoming Virtual Contract Action Team meetings on Wednesday, June 7 at 1PM and 6PM.
We’ll discuss what we can do in the field to help support our team at the table! RSVP below:
If you have any questions about the bargaining process, please contact Union Rep Celia at (360) 419-4678.
After months of bargaining over wages, we were able to reach an agreement with WhidbeyHealth management. In the Support Services contract and Pro/Tech/LPN contract, it states under the “Classification and Rates of Pay” article that the Union and Management will reopen the “Classification and Rates of Pay” article and bargain over wage increases for 2022.
On August 2022, Management implemented a wage increase for some classifications while we were in bargaining. We told Management that the increases were not equitable and they needed to provide additional wage increases to the entire unit.
After much discussion, we were able to win wage increases for all classifications, eliminate all “zero” steps on the wage scales, and increase some premiums. We will be going back to the bargaining table in 2023 to bargain the full contract and continue fighting for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Our next step will be to vote on the contract! We will be holding an online vote on January 5 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for Support Services and January 6 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for Pro/Tech/LPN. You must be union member in good standing by the start of the online vote and have an accurate email on file with UFCW 3000.
If you do not receive communication from UFCW 3000, please update your contact information.
If you are a non-member and wish to vote, please fill out a membership application.
The agreement is fully recommended by your bargaining team!
Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marilyn Faber, Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marty Riley, Elke Rogers
Support Services Online Contract Vote
Thursday, January 5
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Pro / Tech / LPN Online Contract Vote
Friday, January 6
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
We will be holding a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, January 3 at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM to review the agreement.
Vote Meetings
Tuesday, January 3
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM • 6:00 PM to 7:00
Contact your Bargaining Team or Union Rep for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.
There was movement in bargaining on September 23. While we did not reach a tentative agreement, Management increased their across-the-board wage proposal and was open to removing the ghost steps / zero steps. WhidbeyHealth confirmed that their wage proposal would be in addition to the wage increases members received on July 31, 2022.
We counter proposed with a competitive across-the-board increase for all employees, removal of all ghost steps, and increasing certificate premiums to $1.
In the Support Service and Pro-Tech-LPN contracts, there are about ten steps where an employee does not receive an increase when they move from one step to another. By removing ghost steps, employees are no longer penalized for their loyalty to the Hospital. For example, Step 10 and 11 earn the same wage rate. Under our proposal there would be a step increase between Step 10 and 11 in addition to any other ghost steps.
We began bargaining for both Service & Support Unit and the Pro-Tech/LPN Unit together to show solidarity as a bargaining unit at the end of July. On September 23, WhidbeyHealth has countered and tabled bargaining for Service & Support until October 1. We will continue to fight for UNITY and an increased wage for ALL.
Our next bargaining session will be on October 4 and 19. We will be holding a contract action team meeting to discuss bargaining on September 28.
Contract Action Team Meeting
Wednesday, October 5 • 11:00 AM
In-Person Casual Get-Together
Thursday, October 6 • 6:00 PM
Organized by WhidbeyHealth stewards
Applebee’s Grill
31810 State Route 20
Oak Harbor, WA 98277
If you have any questions, please reach out to your bargaining team members or union representative, Celia Ponce-Sanchez.
Our Bargaining Committee:
Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marilyn Faber, Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marty Riley, Elke Rogers
On August 25, we met with WhidbeyHealth management for our second bargaining session regarding the wage reopener for the Pros/Techs/LPNs and Support Services. Management rejected our across-the-board 25% wage increase proposal. They told our team that they believe their targeted market adjustments on July 31 is the first step to helping resolve retention and recruitment issues.
Management used Jefferson Healthcare and Island Hospital wage rates to create their wage scale. We are encouraged that some have received a substantial increase, but others received between a 0% to 2% increase. We need equitable pay for all workers!
We have been below market for several years, in some classifications by more than 20%. Union members organizing pushed Management to announce the July 31 increases. We have been asking Management for several months for competitive pay to resolve our recruitment and retention issues.
We have asked Management to revisit our proposal and expect them to respond with a proposal that addresses our concerns. Our next bargaining session is on September 23 and have requested to meet sooner. We have also asked Management to send their proposal prior to the meeting to expedite the bargaining process.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your bargaining team members or union representative, Celia Ponce-Sanchez.
Your bargaining committee,
Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marilyn Faber, Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marty Riley, Elke Rogers
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.
