Seattle Children’s Hospital Medical Assistants - Tentative Agreement Reached! Contract Vote Scheduled

On Tuesday, July 30, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our eighth round of negotiations and successfully reached a Tentative Agreement!

Our Bargaining Team is recommending a “YES” vote to approve this Tentative Agreement!

• Improvements to the contract include:

• Wage increases all three years of the contract that keep us competitive with other hospitals.

• One new wage step added at the top of the scale each year to benefit our most senior coworkers.

• Continuing Education leave and funding.

• An hourly premium for Certified Medical Assistants.

• An hourly premium for floating between clinics if short notice is given by the employer.

An online vote will be held so that UFCW Local 3000 members can approve the agreement—beginning at 12:00 PM on Thursday, August 8 through 5:00 PM on Friday, August 9. Please update your information if you are not sure UFCW Local 3000 has your current personal email address and other contact information.

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“In this tentative agreement we made significant gains over the last contract, including getting certification pay and Continuing Education leave and funding” — Wendy Rivas

Our Bargaining Team: Wendy Rivas, Joelyn Martin, Angelica Acevedo

Summit Pacific Medical Center - Bargaining Update

Our bargaining Team met with SPMC management Friday and received their initial economic proposal. The proposal included increases to wages, premiums and differentials.

Management provided lists of the wages paid at neighboring hospitals and clinics and made a proposal to try to bring us closer to those facilities. The data they provided did not include wages from contracts that have been recently ratified.

We are reviewing the accuracy and effective dates of the wage scales that SPMC used for their comparisons, to figure out how they determined the proposed increases. Our bargaining team questioned management about the accuracy of their information and management seemed interested in making sure the data they are using is up-to-date.

We are working on a counter proposal and will present our data on wages and other compensation.

It is important that SPMC fully understands our goals for this contract. We need to be competitive to retain current employees and recruit new ones.

Next bargaining dates: August 12 and 19.

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For more information contact a member of our Bargaining Team: Kim Starkweather Patient Coordinator, Allison Felder RN ED, Monica Ortiz RN ACU, Barb Ford ED Tech, Judea Prouty Medical Assistant, McCleary Clinic, Kurt E Phillips Lead Building Engineer.

Union Representatives:
Kiambo White (206) 436-6515
Madison Derksema (206) 436-6603

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"Management is being very receptive and open to feedback."

— Judea Prouty, MA, McCleary Clinic

"They're willing to meet us and are looking at data that shows them where we need to be."

— Monica Ortiz, RN

WhidbeyHealth Service & Support - Ratification Vote Notice

After our last negotiation session with WhidbeyHealth, the Employer presented us with a Last, Best, and Final offer via email in response to our last counter-proposal on all outstanding issues. This means that a vote on what that offer is will be forthcoming on Thursday, August 1. Upon review of the proposal we are recommending a "Yes" vote to ratify the offer.

Some of the highlights include:

Wage parity: We secured agreement that WhidbeyHealth would recognize past experience for represented workers at 100%. After discussion over many sessions, the Employer recognized that we need our most senior workers moved up on the scales the soonest. Their proposal partially reflects this, but also phases in less senior folks sooner whose resulting wage step increase would be less of a financial impact to the Employer in the immediate future.

Market adjustments of wage scales: When the mid-cycle wage bargain happened in 2022 the result (as with the Professional and Technical contract) 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 by Thursday, August 1, we will receive ratification bonuses. These bonuses will be pro-rated by FTE; folks with the most years at WhidbeyHealth will receive the largest bonuses.

More: Improvements to the weekend premium, shift differentials, standby pay, certification pay, and lead pay.

We look forward to seeing you at the following times on Thursday, August 1, to discuss the offer and vote on it:

Main Hospital Coupeville HEC Room C
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Clinic #1 - Oak Harbor - Cabot Break Room
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Clinic #2 - Oak Harbor - Goldie Conference Room
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Clinic - Freeland Break Room
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Clinic - Clinton Break Room
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM

Bargaining Team: Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Service; Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator

Seattle Children's Urgent Care MAs - Continued Movement by Management

We bargained again on Tuesday, July 16 and continued to make progress towards a final agreement. With most issues resolved, we primarily discussed wages, and continued to push for additional increases to ensure our wages remain competitive for the life of our new contract.

Our next bargaining session is scheduled for July 30.

"We are getting close to an agreement, but management still needs to close the gap on wages" — Joelyn Martin

Our Bargaining Team: Joelyn Martin, Angelica Acevedo Arreola, Wendy Rivas