After a first negotiation with Providence at Home with Compassus, our bargaining team worked hard and has reached a tentative agreement. On August 18, we will have a ratification vote. Please join the bargaining team at the vote and have any questions you may have answered.
Read MoreOn August 6, we met with Capital Medical Center management to exchange proposals on retirement plans, wages, meal periods, and health insurance.
Over the past few years, health insurance premiums have risen sharply—especially for part-time nurses, who can pay more than $300 a month for coverage. We believe nurses should not bear these costly increases. Our proposal ensures:
No premium costs for full-time and part-time nurses for "employee-only" coverage.
No increases in premiums for the life of the contract.
We also proposed locking in contribution levels for both the 401(k) and a defined pension plan. Under the pension plan, Capital would contribute a percentage of gross wages each month to a pension trust, providing vested participants with a guaranteed monthly benefit for life. Vesting requires five years of service with a participating employer. Kaiser Permanente, St. Joseph Pharmacy Techs, and Jefferson Healthcare RNs already benefit from this program. We believe retiring with dignity is essential—and a pension plan helps retain experienced nurses and attract new ones.
The employer has not yet responded to our retirement or health care proposals but is expected to do so at our next session on September 10. This past session, management proposed a 24-step wage scale similar to the scales at CMC Techs, Auburn RNs, and Mary Bridge RNs. Our bargaining team countered with a 30-step wage scale that eliminates "ghost" steps and shortens the progression. While we do not agree with their proposed annual increases, shortening the scale offers potential benefits for nurses' wage growth.
We are closely watching our union siblings' negotiations at Providence St. Peter, and our goal is to secure a contract that keeps us competitive with St. Peter and other Multicare hospitals in the South Puget Sound region.
Until our next bargaining session, it's critical we show our unity and determination to win a competitive contract that improves staffing. Join us to pick up union swag:
For questions, reach out to your bargaining team or Union Rep, Kimberely Starkweather at 206-436-6515.
On August 8 we're excited to announce that members ratified our contract that includes historic wage increases for all job classifications! We came together to address recruitment and retention. Our bargaining team is proud of the work we've done and committed to continuing the work throughout the next three years.
Finalizing the Contract: Our union and Lourdes Counseling Center will now work to finalize and sign the new Agreement. Once completed, printed copies will be distributed and available online.
Wage Increases: Our new wages are in effect as of August 10! (First full pay period after ratification)
Please reach out to your bargaining team or your Union Representative, Juanita Quezada (509) 340-7407, if you have any questions or concerns.
On August 6, our Spokane Zenith vote concluded, and we're excited to announce that members voted overwhelmingly to ratify our union contract!
Read MoreThe session began with management presenting a comprehensive counter-offer covering all outstanding proposals, finally giving us a full view of where they stand. While their offer lacked meaningful movement, it did create space for productive dialogue throughout the day.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce we finally have 3 bargaining dates scheduled: 8/28, 9/3, and 9/4. We will report out via email after the bargaining dates to update everyone. Thank you all for your questions regarding the bargaining process. We are eager and ready to begin.
Read MoreOn Thursday July 31, our bargaining team met with Crossroads Management for another negotiation session. Yet again, Crossroads underwhelmed us with their inadequate proposals and arrogant attitudes.
Read MoreOur union bargaining committee, representing the registered nurses at Providence Centralia Hospital is proud to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement on our new contract! Vote meetings have been scheduled, and all PCH RNs are encouraged to attend!
Read MoreOn July 30, we met again with Recovery Cafe. We made progress on outlining a grievance procedure to address potential contract violations that may arise throughout our contract. We also exchanged proposals regarding:
Read MoreOur bargaining team met with the employer on July 28 and 29 to start the process of building our first contract. We voiced our concerns on several issues and gave them some of our proposals.
Read MoreOn July 30, we met again with Dockside Cannabis management to continue negotiations toward your first union contract.
We responded to nearly all of the company's outstanding proposals and had productive discussions at the table. The management said they need time to review our responses, and we're currently working together to schedule our next bargaining dates.
After feedback about the current health insurance, we presented the company with union health plan options that offer better benefits at equal or lower cost for both employees and the employer.
Here's an example comparing one of the union plan options to the company's current base plan (for employee only):
| Plan Details | Current Company Plan | Union Plan Option |
|---|---|---|
| Deductible | $3,000 individual / $9,000 family | $250 individual / $500 family |
| Primary Care Visit | $40 copay | $10 copay |
| Specialist Visit | $40 copay | $25 copay |
These plans would provide significantly better access to care and much lower out-of-pocket costs. We've asked the company for more information so we can present exact rates for different coverage levels.
We're narrowing in on agreement in some key areas:
Seniority rights
Union Representation that includes access to worksite breakroom, bulletin boards, and clear shop steward rights
Discipline and Discharge like Just Cause language, which means you can't be fired or disciplined without a fair reason and a fair process
Grievance Procedure that includes a structured process for addressing workplace issues or contract violations
August 13
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
August 13
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Bring your questions, ideas, or just come to listen!
Questions? Contact Aaron Bailey (360) 409-0551 or Chris Arellano 360-409-0241
On July 30, following vote meetings at all five stores, we're excited to announce that members voted overwhelmingly to ratify our Have a Heart union contract! Our bargaining team fought hard to uplift and protect our members, and we're ready to keep that momentum going as we look to the future.
Our union and Have a Heart will work together to finalize and sign the CBA. Once completed, print copies will be handed out to every store. In the meantime, the redline version of our contract will be available online on our website. Find your contract >>
The new wage structure will go into effect immediately, and anyone whose 2025 anniversary date has already passed will begin receiving their applicable raise. Check the redline or vote summary to determine your increase.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your Union Rep, a member of our bargaining team, or your steward!
Union Rep Aaron Bailey abailey@ufcw300.org or call (no text) 206-436-6631 for any questions.
After two bargaining sessions, we are proud to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with Duty Free America management!
From the beginning, our goal was clear: to improve compensation, recognize your years of service, and build a workplace culture that supports and retains staff. Our collective efforts at the bargaining table have secured significant improvements.
Some of the highlights of the agreement we reached include:
Increased PIC premium
Increase to annual wage increases for all classifications
Improved union access language
New additional floating holiday
New union leave language
Longevity bonus after 10 years of service
Improved PTO payout language
Improved dress code
Improvements to scheduling language
Increased hire-in rate
Vote on Tentative Agreement
August 11
7:00 AM - 9:00 AM
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Breakroom
The vote will be in-person. UFCW 3000 members in good standing are encouraged to drop-in to a vote meeting, read the tentative agreement, ask questions, and cast their vote. You can sign up to be a union member on the day of our vote or by calling Membership Services at 1-866-210-3000 prior to the vote.
Your bargaining team recommends a "YES" vote!
Since late May, your RN bargaining team has been at the table fighting for real solutions to short staffing and unsafe conditions. We've put forward proposals that reflect your priorities—better staffing, competitive pay, and stronger protections. Instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue, management has dismissed our proposals and violated key parts of the contract we already have.
We've filed grievances to address the Hospital's repeated violations of our current CBA:
"Flex Time": Management is low censusing RNs, then expecting them to remain on-call without providing on-call pay. Article 7.6 is clear: RNs are not required to be on-call for all or part of a shift they were scheduled for and then low censused from. Changing start times or forcing nurses to wait by the phone—without compensation—is a contract violation.
In-House Registry Pay: Under Article 12, nurses working in-house registry shifts beyond their FTE are owed 1.5x pay—no 40-hour condition applies. Management is withholding that pay and claiming they can revoke it at will. That's not how our contract works—and we're fighting back.
These issues all point to a pattern: Capital Medical wants more out of nurses—more flexibility, more hours, more patience—without paying more. That's unacceptable.
Capital Medical Center is expanding services and asking more of RNs every day, yet refusing to invest in staff. We've proposed:
Double pay for all extra and vacant shifts
Premium pay increases
Competitive wage increases and removal of ghost steps
Break relief RNs for every unit
Safe staffing ratios and enforceable staffing language
An additional holiday and expanded holiday pay for night shift nurses
Increased PTO and EIB usage from day one
Capital Medical rejected these proposals—while claiming they want to compete with Providence St. Peter. If they're serious, they need to invest in nurses.
Instead, nurses are being told daily about how to take breaks on time—without enough staff to cover those breaks. We've been clear: no break relief RNs and short staffing = no missed and untimely breaks.
Nurses are stretched thin. Morale is low. And instead of investing in the workforce, Capital Medical is rejecting commonsense proposals.
We are continuing to push management to take these issues seriously. Our next bargaining session is August 6 and our contract will expire September 30, 2025.
If you have any questions, please contact your bargaining team or Kimberly Starkweather, Union Rep (206) 436-6515.
Bargaining team: Dennis Verellen, ICU; Bonnie Verellen, L&D; Holly Bruckner, ED; Cindy Dixon, PCU
On Wednesday July 23, & Thursday, July 24, our bargaining team representing the registered nurses at Providence St. Peter Hospital met with management for our ninth and tenth sessions. We began the week with cautious optimism, as management indicated they would finally respond to our proposed Staffing Article, which we first presented on April 29. After months of silence on this critical issue, we were ready to engage in meaningful dialogue.
Unfortunately, the employer's response did not meet the urgency or seriousness of the staffing concerns we've raised throughout this bargain. Rather than offering meaningful improvements or new ideas, their proposal largely repackaged existing language already in our current contract, which outlines existing committees currently operating at our hospital.
Providence's response consisted of various revisions to the existing Nurse Practice and Staffing Committee Letter of Understanding (LOU)—a committee whose operation predates the 2022 Hospital Staffing Committee legislation. Management proposed separating some current contract language related to the Unit Based Council and Professional Governance workgroups into two distinct LOUs. These changes do little—if anything—to improve what we see as the structural causes of unsafe staffing, or give us any feedback on the staffing language our team put so much hard work and critical thinking into.
The lack of direct feedback on our Staffing Article, which would provide our team with the opportunity to appropriately consider and modify our proposal to aim for actionable solutions, prompted us to request this directly when we met with management later on July 24.
Staffing Ratios: Minimum RN-to-Patient ratios that must be maintained at all times, including during meal and rest breaks. The proposal includes flexibility to adjust the number of RN staff to exceed minimum staffing levels to account for acuity and intensity, consistent with the unit's staffing plan.
Enforcement: When ratios are not satisfied, nurses will be paid a premium of $5.00/hr for that specific shift and unit.
The Employer will send a quarterly report to the union of total premiums paid under the above.
Float Pool: The Employer will maintain a dedicated float pool equaling 5.0% of the total RN workforce at Providence St. Peter.
Emergency Department Contingency Staffing Plan: When there are greater than 20 boarded patients in the ED, and greater than 20 patients in the ED waiting room for longer than one hour, the contingency staffing plan goes into effect. The employer will make all reasonable efforts to assign five additional RNs to patient care. This plan remains in place until both numbers fall below 20 for no less than a continuous hour.
Break Relief Nurses: The Employer will post job openings for and make reasonable efforts to hire the equivalent of 13.0 FTE Break Relief nurses within 21 days of contract ratification. Break Relief nurses will assume patient care assignments for another RN so they may take an uninterrupted meal and/or rest break. Break Relief RNs will not have a patient care assignment of their own so they can appropriately cover the assignment. Furthermore, Break Relief RNs shall only be assigned to take patients that they have the appropriate qualifications and competencies to care for.
A "break buddy" model (or otherwise similar but differently titled system) will not be considered an appropriate substitute or replacement for staffing unencumbered break relief nurses.
Management's feedback on our Staffing Article suggested concerns that a few elements of our proposal—namely the minimum staffing ratios and Emergency Department Contingency Staffing Plan—might be too restrictive, implying that such standards could limit their flexibility to address staffing issues proactively, or to add nurses before the triggering conditions are met. Our team remains open to dialogue that ensures solutions are both safe and workable, and so we appreciate this dialogue. However, our stated goal is to set a standard for the minimums on safe staffing—and the capacity for management to act sooner if they see fit is written plainly in our Staffing Article's opening paragraph.
As a follow up to this discussion, we compiled a number of the studies, articles, and other resources we referenced while drafting our proposal and provided them to management in the hopes of substantiating the contents. These included Washington State Public Policy, which compares and contrasts different state hospital staffing plans; Nurse-to-patient staffing ratios from California State Law; staffing laws in effect in other nearby states; the American Nurses Association, who conclude that costs to individual hospitals can be higher when it is understaffed; and regional collective bargaining agreements which directly state minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
We look forward to continuing the conversation with management on solutions to staffing.
"We have a duty to advocate for our patients; we feel like once again, the responses we got from management come with no immediate action, no new concepts, and overall, just fell flat."
— Julia Douglas
"Our team put a lot of work and thoughtfulness into our approach to the staffing language proposal, and what we presented to Providence takes into consideration things we can do outside of the Hospital Staffing Committee—to be proactive while scheduling nurses ahead of time, but also having a plan of action when staffing reaches critical levels; like the Emergency Department Contingency Staffing Plan. If their concern is that this mechanism might go into effect too late, we wish they would incorporate that into their counter, rather than just reject it entirely..."
— Ashley McBride
"The lack of an appropriate number of staff to care for patients on other units impacts the entire hospital—even units that aren't themselves suffering from a staffing issue, and because then RNs are being floated."
— Andy Dusablon
August 7
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Meeting ID: 858 1875 0093
Passcode: 3000
Washington State Labor Council Building - Olympia
3rd Floor Conference Room
906 Columbia St SW #330, Olympia, WA 98501
Front door code: 3413
On Wednesday, July 30, following a series of highly attended vote meetings at both the Pacific and Colby campuses of Providence Everett, we're thrilled to announce that our Technical union contract has been ratified with overwhelming support!
Our union bargaining team is proud of the work we accomplished at the table and proud to share this win with all of our coworkers.
Finalizing the Contract: Our union and Providence will now work to finalize and sign the new Agreement. Once completed, printed copies will be distributed throughout the medical center.
Access in the Meantime: Redlined versions of the fully ratified contract (including updated language articles and wage scales) have been added to the contract page on our union's website
Wage Increases: Our new wages will go into effect two full pay periods from ratification (July 30!)
If you have any questions about our new union contract, please reach out to our Union Rep Madison Derksema at (206) 436-6603, or contact a member of our bargaining team!
Fresenius bargaining team is not amused with the wage proposals made by management (from left: Maria Lucas, PCT 2; Jovona Trevino, PCT 2; and Krista Smith, PCT 2).
We met with Fresenius management again on Friday to hear their long-awaited response to our economic proposals. We were excited to learn management agreed to add the GO4RN program to the contract so that any PCTs participating in the program will receive a 5% wage increase for each quarter of the program completed. They also made progress toward agreeing to add the PCT 3 position and its higher wages to the contract.
The excitement quickly faded when we learned that they rejected our longevity bonus proposal outright and, in terms of wage increases, are proposing a measly 1.5% raise on ratification, then a 1.5% raise in 2026 and another 1.5% raise in 2027. Even as management's very first wage proposal, 1.5% feels like a slap in the face. They also wholly rejected our reasonable proposals on safer patient scheduling and worker protections from harassment by difficult patients.
The fight is far from over. If you too are frustrated reading this, then join us at our next CAT meeting this Sunday, August 3 at the University Place branch of the Pierce County Library from 3:30-4:30pm and on Zoom. Your team will be there to talk about our last bargaining session and what we plan to do between now and the next bargaining date, August 18. We will be debuting a petition to demand that management take our bargaining proposals seriously on real wage increases and on safe patient scheduling. We'll also discuss actions we can take individually and as a team to show Fresenius we're united and we're not backing down. Reach out to your Rep Charlie or a bargaining team member with any concerns about the meeting or Zoom link. We'll see you there!
August 3
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
University Place Branch of the Pierce County Library
3609 Market Place W., Suite 100
University Place, WA 98466
"A 1.5% raise is just not going to cut it considering they just passed the highest tax increase in history. We deserve better."
— Krista Smith, PCT 2, bargaining team
Fresenius Puyallup team shows solidarity (From left: Tami Gordon, PCT 2; Anabelle Moran, PCT 2; and Susie McAlpine, PCT 2)
On Tuesday, July 30, the new three-year union contract for ACME Farms was unanimously approved by all those who attended the vote! Management has been informed that the terms of the new agreement should now be implemented.
Our negotiator will go through the post-vote process of finalizing the document for approval and signing by both parties, then copies will be printed for distribution by our Union Representative Alyssa Conn. Alyssa can be reached at 360-419-4681 should you have any questions.
Our bargaining team met with Sea Wolf Bakers' management on Tuesday, July 29. We reached several important Tentative Agreements on:
Daily overtime hours
Paid bereavement leave
Employer IRA contributions
Minimum report pay in the event we show up to work and are sent home
At this session we also celebrated an exciting stride toward agreement on key economic items! The employer provided their first proposal on digital and cash tips, and our bargaining team gave candid feedback on the importance of implementing tip pooling to keep up with the cost of living. Our team passionately continued the conversation on paid holidays and wage scales to work towards an agreement that is equitable for all staff.
During this session we heard additional feedback from the employer on heat safety. Although the specifics of "extreme heat" were disputed, our team maintained our position on the importance of heat relief breaks.
We are pleased to announce we secured August 12 for another bargaining session as well as the already-scheduled August 26 date, and are looking forward to gaining momentum towards a Fully Recommended Settlement Agreement we can then put to a vote of our fellow Sea Wolf Union members!
Bargaining Team: Frankie Hull, Delivery Driver; Miller Hammond, Barista; Sophia Cerreta, Savory and Bread Departments
On Monday, July 28, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our fourteenth joint bargaining session. We were given an economic proposal that would put our wages below those of St. Joseph Medical Center, an idea we were underwhelmed by. Other pieces they responded to were:
Retirement: they continue to offer a continuation of the existing 401K match and the potential addition of their cash balance option pension proposal as an alternative to the 401K, but have rejected our proposal to add Saint Michael to the Sound Variable Annuity Pension Trust.
Holidays: Management continues to reject adding Juneteenth to our existing holidays.
Contract Ratification Bonus: While they put a ratification bonus on the table this week, it was $500 for .9 FTEs and above, with this amount pro-rated for lower FTEs (per diems would be classified as .2 under their proposal).
Other items we traded continued proposals on were:
Mandatory call.
A workplace violence memorandum to address safety in the workplace.
Our next Contract Action Team Meeting will be on July 31 at 6pm. Please join us to discuss how we can keep the pressure on Management to get a fair contract soon!
Meeting ID: 893 9273 5171 Passcode: 798196
If you haven’t already, please sign our community support letter and share with friends and family.
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.
