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
For the first time in history, on Tuesday, Sept 29, grocery store workers from across Washington State and North Idaho met at the same table to plan for our upcoming bargaining session with Kroger and Albertsons.
Our team met with the employer again today to continue bargaining. We have finally started discussing economics, focusing on health care and wages, which we know are our members’ top priorities. We've seen very little movement from the employer and know we need to start escalating.
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.
Our Union Bargaining Team is excited to announce that after several months we have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for Nurses!
Read MoreOn November 26, after just seven productive negotiation sessions, our bargaining team at Virtual Health is thrilled to announce that we have reached a fully recommended Tentative Agreement on our 2024 successor contract!
Read MoreUnless significant progress is made in our next session, we will be recommending a “NO” vote on the contract, and a separate “YES” vote to authorize a strike should our Bargaining Team feel they need to call for one in the future. We will be able to answer questions about the vote in our pre-vote meeting that will be held on December 12.
Read MoreThe practice of “rounding” timecards at the seven-to-eight-minute mark is being eliminated, and we will instead be transitioning to “actual” timekeeping: where employees are paid to-the-minute. While we anticipate that this change will improve the overall accuracy of our timecards (& potentially increase the amount of compensable time-worked we are paid for overall), there are a few anticipated impacts this change may have, and therefore negotiated the below protections through our Union:
Read MoreThe outcome of these negotiations is a historic first union contract that we believe sets a new standard for healthcare workers, and we feel that we have secured some of the strongest workplace protections, wages, and benefits we’ve ever seen in a new contract.
Read MoreOne of the big wins we got was Workforce Development, which is the meat apprenticeship program that is accredited with the state. Another big win was our Strong Safety Language for the first time ever in our contract. This allows the workplace safety committees to recommend trainings for each workplace and topics for the master safety committee.
Read More“Labor cannot stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under. The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.” — Jose Munzo Lazo, Certified Medical Assistant
Read MoreManagement continues to propose changes to our “work on holidays” language in Article 11 of our contract. As written, this would mean that members would receive only the time and a half for that work —BUT NOT HOLIDAY PAY.
Read MoreWith these priorities in mind, our team went to work—fighting to secure a strong, competitive contract for the Service, Office, and Technical workers at MultiCare Capital Medical Center. We believe the result is a contract that will stand the test of time and keep us competitive for years to come.
Read MoreOn the morning of November 20, our Women's Center Clinics bargaining team met to finalize proposals to kick-off negotiations with MultiCare. Now that we have won our union election, we are eager to enter the existing Clinics Collective Bargaining Agreement with UFCW Local 3000!
In order to prepare, we spent time reviewing wages, PTO, and a number of the articles in the existing contract to make sure that we are coming to our first day of negotiations with MultiCare stronger than ever. The terms of our bargain will mainly focus on how we are compensated on the union pay scales, and how the existing provisions of the union contract will impact our wages, hours, and working conditions.
After our review of the existing contract- and making sure our specific proposals matched the work we do at the Women's Center clinics- we provided availability to management through January 2025. We look forward to hearing back & getting to the bargaining table to fully realize our position as union members!
Once dates are set, we will continue to keep our coworkers in the loop throughout the process with bargaining updates after each session with the Employer.
"We're looking forward to moving forward! We feel stronger than ever before after seeing how high our unit's support for unionizing was. I think we're just feeling energized by the position we're in!"
—Liam Hughes, Medical Assistant @ Women's Center Sunrise; Carol Krings, Medical Receptionist @ Women's Center Puyallup
We have reached an agreement with PRMCE regarding past experience recognition for Endoscopy Techs. All current employees will receive credit for their prior experience as Certified Medical Assistants effective the first full pay period following ratification of the Letter of Understanding and following the resume submission.
Read More
Our Union Bargaining Team met with Northwest Administrators Management for three joint sessions November 18-20. We have come to Tentative Agreements on almost all outstanding non-economic issues.
After our eighth pass at an economic package proposal Management has only been able to move from 1.25% increases on wages to 1.5% in each year. This is far less than the 3% each year we received in the last collective bargaining agreement!
We will have one more bargaining session on December 9th but have messaged to the Employer that we will be holding a vote on the offer that we receive by the end of that day.
If we cannot recommend the offer on the table by the end of that day, we will be recommending a NO vote. We do, however, hope Management will bring us an offer we can recommend.
December 19 we will hold an online contract vote with details to be announced shortly.
When we ratified our contact on November 6, 2024 we won the right to an Experience Audit from the Employer, This agreement is an opportunity for caregivers to have their prior work experience reviewed.
Read More
El día 14 de noviembre se llevó a cabo la votación para la aprobación de la oferta final del contrato colectivo laboral que la empresa Washington Beef le ofreció a los trabajadores(as) miembros de la UFCW 3000. El contrato fue ratificado por la mayoría de los votantes.
Para la UFCW 3000 y sus miembros, esta fecha marca el inicio de una lucha que deberá mantenerse los próximos 3 años para lograr mejores condiciones laborales.
En cuanto a los beneficios económicos, se logró un aumento de salario para los trabajadores, y apoyos para compra de equipo para empleados con más de un año de antigüedad en la empresa.
Todas estas prestaciones y muchas otras, beneficiarán a los trabajadores de Washington Beef y la Unión UFCW 3000 trabajará para continuar con los entrenamientos voluntarios para los delegados de la Unión y así fortalecer el movimiento.
Invitamos a todos los trabajadores a unirse a los grupos de Whatsapp y estar pendientes para los siguientes pasos.
El día 14 de noviembre se llevó a cabo la votación para la aprobación de la oferta final del contrato colectivo laboral que la empresa Washington Beef le ofreció a los trabajadores(as) miembros de la UFCW 3000. El contrato fue ratificado por la mayoría de los votantes.
Para la UFCW 3000 y sus miembros, esta fecha marca el inicio de una lucha que deberá mantenerse los próximos 3 años para lograr mejores condiciones laborales.
En cuanto a los beneficios económicos, se logró un aumento de salario para los trabajadores, y apoyos para compra de equipo para empleados con más de un año de antigüedad en la empresa.
Todas estas prestaciones y muchas otras, beneficiarán a los trabajadores de Washington Beef y la Unión UFCW 3000 trabajará para continuar con los entrenamientos voluntarios para los delegados de la Unión y así fortalecer el movimiento.
Invitamos a todos los trabajadores a unirse a los grupos de Whatsapp y estar pendientes para los siguientes pasos.
We proposed our economic proposal to Jefferson Healthcare management at our fourth bargaining session on November 4. Here’s a summary of the key points:
Read MoreLast week UFCW 3000 President Faye Guenther along with other union staff joined UFCW local 7’s Bargaining Team in Denver as they sat down with Albertsons/Safeway and Kroger in their fight for a fair contract. This collaboration between the grocery store workers in Colorado and the over 25,000 grocery store members of UFCW 3000, whose contracts expire early next year is an important signal of strength and unity in our fight for Better Wages, Better Staffing, Better Stores.
Read MoreWe wanted to share a comprehensive update on the economic proposals discussed with Jefferson Healthcare management at our fourth and fifth bargaining sessions on October 25 and November 1. Here’s where we stand:
Read MoreOur Virtual Health bargaining team met with management on November 7, 2024 for our sixth negotiation session to continue work towards a 2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement. While there are still a number of outstanding contract articles we are negotiating, we are also finalizing many tentative agreements with the Employer, meaning we are now primarily negotiating over some of our highest priorities we had for this round of bargaining.
On the 7th we exchanged proposals regarding:
The training, onboarding, and mentoring process of new hires
Expansion of our rights to bereavement leave
An extended equal opportunity article, which aims to provide a supportive process for our coworkers should they face discrimination or harassment in the workplace
And of course: premiums, differentials, and the wages we are paid for the hard work we do
We are continuing to review regional market wages and working hard to ensure that our pay at Virtual Health doesn't just reach the competitive rates in the first year of our contract, but that it stays competitive throughout the next few years. Furthermore, we are also working on some of the "formatting" of our wage scales - such as efforts to uniform the scales to the same number of total steps, and removing "ghost" steps (years where you do not receive a wage increase for another year of employment).
"We're making progress to ensure a fair contract is reached. We're dedicated to making sure we're compensated fairly, and that our union contract provides the support we all need to continue the hard work we do every day."
—Rayann La Madeleine, Monitor Tech
Your bargaining team: Faith Couch, Central Monitoring Telemetry; Chelan Henley, Virtual Companion; Rayann La Madeleine, Central Monitoring Telemetry; Francine Toves (guest), Virtual Companion
Bargaining Team: Karen Hurley, Lynette Swezey, Belinda Denchfield
OUR WINS:
Across the board wage increases:
Effective November 1, 2024: 13% increase across the board
Effective November 1, 2025: 3.5% increase across the board
Effective November 1, 2026: 3.5% increase across the board
$5 NIGHT SHIFT DIFFERENTIAL
$3/hr Per diem RN premium
Longevity Steps reduced from 1872 to 1564 hours. Meaning nurses will move to the next step on the wage scale three hundred and eight (308) hours earlier.
Unscheduled Day of Work increased from time and one half to double time.
Among other increases in premiums.
"After being part of this process, I will never question the importance of being part of a Union or what our dues pay for. It was enlightening to see how valuable OUR UNION is."
— Karen Hurley, RN
To join our union contact Amy Radcliff (509) 340-7370 orjoin our union here >>
Our Bargaining Team is working hard to make sure that everyone has competitive wages and a fair and equitable place to work!
We have provided Summit with wage charts from many other area hospitals and clinics. We have discussed the cost of living and how competitive pay is for jobs in the area. Management has said they are listening and understand how recruitment and retention works. Our last bargaining session, management came to bargaining and told us why competitive wages are important to Summit's success.
WE AGREE! It's what we have been saying all along.
We all need to make enough money to pay bills and support our families.
Summit will be expanding soon and we know this means better service to our community. Management needs to understand that we are part of this community and we need to be paid fair wages.
OK Summit Management, it's time to put money in people's pockets.
Our next bargaining session is Friday, November 8.We hope that management will be ready for us.
Bargaining Team:Kimberly Starkweather, Allison Felder, Monica Ortiz, Barb Ford, Judea Prouty, Kurt Phillips.
To update your contact information:
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.
