Providence Radiant Care - Bargaining Update

On July 7 & 8, we met with Providence for back-to-back bargaining days to continue negotiations on our union contract. Over the course of our time together, we focused heavily on the all-too-normal issues faced by employees at our clinics- chronic understaffing leading to chronic overtime, frequent traveling between clinics to help out with other chronically understaffed clinics… All leading to an increased workload, stressful work environment, and sense of uncertainty in our schedules.

While we exchanged a number of different ideas around incentives/stipends/bonuses to try and lessen the impact on our staff- we continuously stressed to Providence that overall- these ancillary solves are just that: ancillary; and frankly, if wages at Radiant Care were competitive enough to recruit and retain talented staff, we all wouldn’t need to rely on them.

In the afternoon on Wednesday, we presented Providence with a comprehensive package proposal which aims to both illustrate (and directly address) to management that wages are the permanent fix, rather than just a band-aid. After spending a bit of time reviewing the proposal, management let us know that they’d need more time to run numbers and spend time working on their end to get us a response. While we are very eager to see what their response brings- it’s also time that we have some serious conversations with our coworkers about the next steps in our contract bargain:

“We’ve come to a critical point in negotiations and we’re going to have to make important decisions about next steps that will impact all of us- therefore, we need to hear from all of you. Show up, in person, so we all know how to move forward.” -Kelly Covington, RN

CONTRACT ACTION TEAM MEETING: Friday, July 10 from 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

In-person location in Olympia forthcoming – our Bargaining Team will follow-up with the location ASAP

In the meantime, we are also officially launching Strike Pledge Cards- follow the link below to pledge your name in solidarity & show management we are ready to take action to win a strong contract!

SIGN THE STRIKE PLEDGE! >>