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.
Please lookout for a vote notice once we can confirm when the ratification vote will take place. Members will all have a chance to review the vote documents and ask questions, we will also hold a meeting to discuss this historic TA very soon. Also, please thank your Bargaining Team! They worked very hard.
We asked Management about their low wage proposals for 2027 and 2028. They responded that they weren’t focusing on cost-of-living increases and cited that people want to work at this destination employer because it has such a good culture. What do you think?
Read MoreThe rest of the day built off of that momentum and we were able to secure an agreement with the Employer that is fully recommended by our Union Bargaining Team! This offer includes a 10.5% wage increase over the life of the contract as well as increases and expansions to multiple premium pay options! We also were able to secure improvements to our scheduling language, retroactive pay, and compensation for those who are at the top of the scale.
Read More
Labcorp is extremely out of touch. The Employer is coming to us with very few solutions and very little movement, and it stormed out of our session. The Employer claims it has “come to the table in the spirit of trying to reach an agreement that provides fair compensation and a positive workplace for Labcorp workers.” Still, it called our wage proposals “crazy,” “insane,” and “unreasonable.”
Instead of its previously meager first-year offer of a 1.5% increase, the Employer is now offering a 1.75% increase. The Employer is also unwilling to commit to promptly fixing paycheck issues that have been widespread and ongoing, negatively affecting low-wage workers who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Labcorp UFCW 3000 members will start organizing a series of gradually escalating actions.
“We’re the first-place division, but they don’t want to compensate us for our hard work.”
— Lisa
“I’m sad and frustrated. They walked away from the table because we called them out on not being willing to bring solutions.”
— Sam
It is time for us to show the Employer that we are strong and willing to stand together. Please attend a Contract Action Team meeting at 7pm on Tuesday to hear more about bargaining and discuss future actions.
July 28, 2026 - 7pm Contract Action Team Meeting
Meeting ID: 873 1725 6986
Passcode: 169221
Negotiations will take place on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
Bargaining Team: Shelby Tyner, Serenity MacLennan, Kyle Chrisman, Lisa McGee, Sam McVay, Grace Nagamatsu, Erin Vaughn, David Trujillo, Union Rep; and Cesar R Quiles-Borrero, Negotiator.
If you have questions or would like to get more involved in organizing a fair contract, please reach out to our Union Rep, David Trujillo, at 206-436-6606 or 1-866-210-3000, ext. 6606.
“We had a productive bargaining meeting and reached several tentative agreements, which is an encouraging sign of the progress we’re making together. While we still have work to do on the non-economic items, the discussion remained constructive. We are hopeful that we will continue building on this momentum and make further progress at our next bargaining session.” – Clari Ramos, Nutrition Pharmacist
Read MoreYesterday we met with the Employer for the second time. It was their turn to get back to us on our proposals. After their presentation our team worked the rest of the afternoon to respond to their proposals. See the tentative agreements (TAs) we've reached so far (please keep in mind that nothing is final until all members vote and approved the Contract).
Read MoreWe are set to meet the Employer again on August 6 and 27. You must become part of this process and ensure that your committee gets the strength and stamina to finish this contract negotiation with the best outcome possible regardless of the hurdles that they are facing at the table.
Read MoreLast Friday we met with the Employer for the first time. The Employer presented their initial set of non-economic proposals. Our Bargaining Committee studied their proposals, formulated counterproposals, and introduced an additional non-economic set of proposals.
Read MoreOn Monday, July 20, following a series of well-attended vote meetings, our MultiCare Capital Medical Center Professionals Bargaining Team is overjoyed to announce that our First Ever Union Contract has been ratified!
Through perseverance, dedication, and solidarity, we have transformed MultiCare Capital Medical Center and are proudly UNION REPRESENTED PROFESSIONALS!
We started our sixth day of union contract negotiations with proposals in our court, which we began with a new cadence that we thought a might help our discussions get across and reach the Employer. While we did reach a few new Tentative Agreements (a three-year duration on our contract, clarity around suggesting new premium-eligible certifications through Labor Management Committee, and the removal of some old language referencing an effective date from three years in the past…), I’m sure you can imagine, these aren’t the topics of discussion which our Bargaining Team and coworkers at SJMC care the most about.
Read More
July 17, 2026
Our RN Bargaining Team began our second bargaining date with management eager to see responses to our initial set of proposals, after providing management with more than 15 pages of proposals at our first session on June 24.
Our excitement quickly turned to disappointment when the Employer let us know that it would not have economic proposals—wages, premiums, and other items—for us that day. These sections were excluded from the Employer’s responses.
Despite this, we got right to work once we received the Employer’s non-economic counterproposals and returned our own set of counters to the Employer by the end of the day.
We reached a few minor tentative agreements, including:
Some contract-wide job title and benefits title updates
Mirroring paycheck availability deadlines for direct deposit
We discussed the duration of our contract with the Employer throughout the day. We proposed a three-year agreement, while the Employer indicated that it would prefer to wait until more sections of the contract are agreed upon before reaching a formal agreement. The Employer hinted at a shorter or longer duration, depending on how negotiations progress.
We indicated that while our formal proposal is for three years, we are open to discussing the duration as negotiations continue.
Lastly, we brought it to the Employer’s attention that disqualifying nurses from bonus shift incentive pay because they called out sick during that period may violate Washington state protected sick leave laws. We look forward to hearing back from management on this at our next session.
Following our next session, we plan to announce our next Bargaining Update and Contract Action Team meeting. Stay tuned for future updates and look out for our next meeting!
“We appreciate the nurses stickering up on July 16! Your support at the hospital helps us support you at the bargaining table.”
— Tami Ottenbreit, OB RN
Bargaining Team: Tami Ottenbreit, OB RN; Stephanie Weibel, ER RN; Yesina Ellis, ICU RN; Holly Hurst, Med Surg RN; Karen Campbell, Surgery RN.
If you are interested in being a member of our Contract Action Team, call our Union Rep, Juanita Quezada, at (509) 340-7407.
Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer again on July 16, to continue negotiations for our next Union contract. Given the Employer’s conduct during recent sessions, we did not expect significant progress. Unfortunately, we were proven right.
Read MoreOn July 15, we had our thirteenth session with the employer, and the second with the federal mediator. Despite a great deal of back and forth, we remain apart on the same outstanding issues, which was very frustrating. Our team came in hoping to finalize our union contract, however, due to the responses from the employer, we were unable to and will be going forward with an informational picket.
At the end of the day, we presented our community petition to the employer and told them of our intention to have an informational picket. We are still finalizing the date of the picket and will send out that information when we have it confirmed. Once a date has been finalized for the informational picket, we will hold a meeting to talk about it and answer any questions.
Read More
Bargaining Team: Theresa Randolph, Lab Scientist; Trisha Self, Physical Therapist; Clari Ramos, Nutrition Therapy; Jessica Schell, Social Worker; Trevor Schultz, Pharmacist.
“Overall, today had a positive outcome, and we did a lot of hard work on our proposals. Still, I am a little disappointed that management did not have much to give back to us today. I am excited to see what progress we make at future meetings.”
— Trevor Schultz
“Your Bargaining Team has put in a lot of work to get to today. We have had several meetings and put a lot of thought into the proposals we presented. Our Bargaining Team is committed to ensuring that each proposal reflects the priorities of the entire unit. We have spent a lot of time considering how each sentence could be interpreted and ensuring that all language matches our collective needs across departments.”
— Trisha Self
We have just concluded our first day of bargaining for our Union contract. We presented all of our non-economic proposals, including recognition, successorship, seniority, employment practices, job security, and a grievance procedure to protect us in our jobs.
Management responded to two of our proposals and committed to responding to the rest at our next session on the 23.
We learned a lot about the process today and are hopeful about what we can accomplish at the next meeting. This is a fluid process that is continually changing, and at this time, we are limited in what specifics we can share. Throughout this process, it is important that we maintain unity and strength to win what we deserve.
After each session, we will send one of these updates and highlight opportunities for everyone to be involved in this process through our Contract Action Team.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns to your Union Rep, Becky Latzel, or a member of the Bargaining Team.
Our Bargaining Team at Capital Medical Center is overjoyed to announce that on Thursday, July 9, we reached a fully recommended tentative agreement with MultiCare for the Professionals’ first Union contract.
Copies of the full contract and wage scales will be available at the vote. Our Union Bargaining Team will also be present to make sure our coworkers get the necessary details before casting their ballots.
Importantly, this also means that the informational picket scheduled for Monday, July 13, is canceled.
Through our strength, determination, and collective power, we achieved a first contract that we are proud to bring to a vote, including significant wins like:
Just Cause protections, so we cannot be disciplined or terminated without substantiating evidence
Union seniority rights, so our tenure with CapMC will factor into various job protections and rights
Health insurance protections, including capped premium increases over the course of our Agreement and guaranteed benefit eligibility based on FTE
Union wage scales, securing minimum wage rates based on years of experience and continued growth through both across-the-board increases and step longevity advancement
Credit for work experience, so experience in our job classifications, including experience outside of and before Capital Medical Center, will factor directly into our placement on the Union wage scales
To read through the tentative agreement, discuss the future of our new Professionals Union, and cast your ballot, please attend one of the vote meetings below.
Ratification Vote
July 20
7am - 9am and 2pm - 5pm
MultiCare Capital Medical Center, Cascade Conference Room, located within the cafeteria
“So excited! At a loss for words!”
— Sela Smith, Pharmacist
“We did it!”
— Amy Myrtue, Dietitian
“I’m proud that we stuck it out, I’m proud of the work we did, and proud of this contract!”
— Kimberly Vetter, Occupational Therapist
“Excited to have made it here, and with such a great foundation that we only get to build on from here!”
— Tammy Taylor, Physical Therapist
Bargaining Team: Kimberly Vetter, Occupational Therapist; Sela Smith, Pharmacist; Tammy Taylor, Physical Therapist; Amy Myrtue, Dietitian; Callie Hills, Hospital Social Worker.
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! >>
St. Michael Medical Center
Bargaining Update - Sign The Strike Pledge Card Today!
Tuesday, July 7
Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer again on Tuesday, July 7, to continue negotiations for our next Union contract.
After more than a month of waiting for a response to our health care proposal, the Employer finally came back with a counterproposal. While we appreciate finally receiving a response, the numbers they proposed are not sufficient to keep up with projected increases in health insurance costs and would likely result in higher costs for workers.
Our Bargaining Team’s health care proposal was based on data provided by professional health care actuaries and is designed to ensure that the Employer bears the burden of projected cost increases instead of pushing those costs onto workers. Anything less increases the possibility that workers will pay more for their health care and our bargaining team believes any increases to workers is unacceptable, especially given the employer low offer on wage increases.
Frustrated but determined, our Bargaining Team got back to work and presented another comprehensive proposal for the Employer to review. Our proposal addresses many of the real needs workers are facing, including competitive market-based wages, affordable health insurance, and meaningful premium improvements. Our wage proposals did not make much movement, but they are in line with what the market is offering at other health care facilities and would help keep St. Michael competitive.
We stand by our proposals. They are realistic, data-driven, and necessary. The Employer, meanwhile, continues to act as if it can ignore the economic realities facing health care workers.
That became even more clear when the Employer sent back a second counterproposal later in the day. While they slightly increased their offer on health care, their movement on wages was minimal and insulting.
The Employer’s latest wage proposal is:
Year 1 (2026): 2.75%
Year 2 (2027): 2.50%
Year 3 (2028): 3.00%
Nothing will change until we take action. Many of your coworkers have already signed the Strike Pledge Card and are wearing Union stickers in the workplace. If you have not signed yet, now is the time!
Sign The Strike Pledge Card Today >>
Our next bargaining date with the Employer is July 16, and we have proposed additional dates for the Employer’s consideration.
"A hospital’s greatest asset is its people. A contract that fails to value them fails everyone."
— Lara Williams-Graham
"A big waste of time."
— Bryson Andrews
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.
Our Forks Community Hospital Service and Technical Bargaining Team has reached a tentative agreement with Management and recommends a YES vote to approve the agreement.
Read More
On Wednesday, June 24, our bargaining team met with CommonSpirit management for our fifth session of contract negotiations.
The conference room was very warm—nearly 80 degrees by the time we arrived at 8:30am—but our team was fired up even before the Employer’s counterproposals came later that morning. Given the recent unanimous strike vote and contract ratification by the Pharmacists at our hospital over the last two weeks, we spent our morning debriefing their negotiations, knowing their experience would give us insights into what we could expect at our own bargaining table.
Around 11am we received management’s “comprehensive” counterproposal. Comprehensive because technically it includes both economic and non-economic articles, but in quotations because there wasn’t much offered in the first place. Today’s proposals had so little movement that you would probably miss it if the Employer hadn’t read it to us:
An increase of 0.25% from their last proposal toward wages in each year of our contract, totaling 2.25% across the board for all classifications.
Rejection of any increase to premiums or differentials (lead pay, certification premium, preceptor pay, standby/on-call, and so on).
Beyond the Employer’s underwhelming offer on compensation, their proposal maintained some takeaways:
A proposal to eliminate the 15% pay-in-lieu-of-benefits wage differential for workers who opt out of health and welfare benefits (Section 9.5).
A proposal to modify the full- and part-time FTE definition as it applies to cost-sharing for health insurance premiums. This would result in workers currently considered full-time eventually paying a larger portion of monthly premiums (Section 12.1).
After receiving the proposal and moving to a conference room with a slightly lower temperature, our team continued strategizing around next steps and how to build power to win a strong contract. Ultimately, we decided it was best to return our own counterproposals at the start of our next bargaining session, rather than that afternoon. We suspect that many of the discussions we have at the table are being forgotten in the time between sessions. We look forward to returning to the bargaining table on July 16 and getting our own counterproposals to management first thing in the morning.
To get more information about ongoing negotiations and to discuss strategies to build power to win a strong union contract, join our next Contract Action Team meeting.
Tuesday, July 14
5:30pm - 6:30pm
Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 860 5668 2841
Passcode: 442907
If you haven’t already, sign our STRIKE PLEDGE CARD to show management we are ready to stand together:
And sign up to be an ACTION NETWORK LEAD to keep your coworkers informed and ready throughout bargaining:
Contract Action Network Sign-Up >>
Bargaining Team: Michelle Gilmore, Respiratory Therapist; Monica Dewitt, Pharmacy Tech; Vanessa Giles, Surgical Technologist; Chad Michels, Cardiovascular Technologist; Sissy Allison, Surgical Technologist
On June 29, members ratified both of our new contracts at Recovery Cafe. Our fight for a first contract gives us a stronger voice on the job and guaranteed protections and benefits. Recovery Cafe will follow up soon with information about the implementation timeline for wages, back pay, and other guaranteed benefits.
But we don’t need to wait to build power in other ways. We need members interested in joining our Labor Management Committee and in becoming Stewards. Follow up with your Union Rep Chris Arellano at (360) 409-0241 for more information about getting involved.
We will continue building power in our workplace, for our members, and with each other.
We hope that MultiCare cease the divisive and potentially illicit behavior, and we look forward to returning to the bargaining table with them on July 9. To display the power and solidarity of our union, we have officially scheduled an INFORMATIONAL PICKET outside of Capital Medical Center, details below
Read MoreWe 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.
