St. Michael Medical Center Professional-Technical-Clinical Support - Bargaining Update - A Big Waste of Time
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We met with the Employer again on Thursday, June 25. All proposals were in the Employer’s court for response. Our Bargaining Team came prepared and hopeful that real progress could be made.
Unfortunately, the Employer was not ready to present proposals until 1:30pm. When they finally did meet with us, we were disappointed and frustrated to learn that they only had non-economic responses. They cited a lack of approval from higher management as the reason they could not respond to key economic proposals.
On economics, the Employer specifically pointed to a lack of approval to provide a meaningful response on health care, an issue we have still not received any counterproposal on. At this point, even if the Employer provided a counterproposal on all other economic issues, it would be extremely difficult for our Bargaining Team to respond without first receiving answers about the future of our health care costs.
Therefore, the Employer’s proposal on wages from our last session still stands:
2.50% in year one
2.50% in year two
2.25% in year three
What little the Employer did counter made almost no meaningful progress and did not address the issues that matter most to workers. The Employer continues to hold firm to its proposal to force workers to wear specific scrub colors by job classification, at workers’ own expense. They also proposed lopsided language that would treat members of our bargaining unit inequitably when it comes to recognizing experience, depending on job classification. And they continue to reject our reasonable safety proposal to increase security presence in the Family Birth Center.
Our Bargaining Team was able to quickly respond to the limited proposals the Employer did pass. But after only a few hours of actual bargaining, the Employer stated that they still did not have the approvals needed to provide further responses. As a result, we ended the day early, even though bargaining had already started late.
Our technical UFCW 3000 Union siblings at St. Joseph Medical Center, who have the same contract expiration date, also bargained this 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 both 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 1 at 4pm, where we will announce the next steps in this campaign.
“The Employer came totally unprepared to be productive in bargaining.”
— Merry Brandt-MacFann
“They wasted our time and came back unprepared. So let’s be prepared and have everybody join our CAT Meeting at 4pm on July 1!”
— Rob Shauger
“When we bargain with the Employer, we are pulling resources from the hospital because our shifts need to be covered. So when management isn’t ready to bargain, it is just a waste of those resources.”
— Angela Roberson
CAT Meeting
July 1
4pm
Zoom
Bargaining Team: Robel Haile, Clinical Pharmacist; Bryson Andrews, ED Tech; Olivia Almeida, Respiratory Therapist; Merry Brandt-MacFann, CT Technologist; Lara Williams-Graham, Certified Surgical Technologist; Angela Roberson, EP Technologist; Rob Shauger, CNA
