Seattle Children’s Hospital - Management Needs a Reality Check

Yesterday, on February 8, 2022, our team meet with management for our seventh joint bargaining session. We provided management with comprehensive counters on almost every open issue at the table, including our remaining economic proposals. Since management took most of the day to form a response to our economics, we were initially hopefully that they would come back to us with a reasonable counter. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case at all. 

Management provided an economic counter that was very similar to their initial proposal and was nowhere close to what we had put across the table. The wages they are proposing (which they have claimed “meet the market”) are still way too low. On top of this they rejected virtually every one of the other proposals we made on economics, which included:

• Increases to our Preceptor Pay, Call Back Pay, Certification Pay, Lead Pay, Standby Pay, Weekend Differentials, and Evening differentials 

• Increases retirement plan matching funds

• The removal of all “ghost steps” on our wage matrix

• A sizable retention bonus that would be offered to everyone

• An erasure of all “debt” related to negative sick bank balances acquired over the course of the pandemic 

• A guarantee that the employer would provide pay for anyone forced to stay home after a work-related exposure to communicable diseases

• Our proposals that ensured promotions to a higher job classification level (i.e. ST I to ST 2, RT I to RT2, ect) would be accessible to everyone and that their years of experience would be fully credited when moving up

• An increase to our Per Diem premium

• Our reduced cost parking plan

• Guarantees that every union member would see a step increase every year

• Guarantees that our benefits cannot change without our consent

• Increased Bereavement Leave time

• Improvements to our Sick Time and Vacation plans

• And many others

If management believes their proposed pitiful wage increases alone are enough to fix the staffing crisis, they are delusional. Our next contract needs to include significantly higher wage increases as well as real, tangible improvements to the other economic factors that affect our take home pay. An industry leading, holistic approach is the only way for us to truly end the staffing crisis. 

Yesterday’s session showed us that our team’s fears were justified: management is completely out of touch with what we as union workers need. It’s clear that our words at the bargaining table alone aren’t enough to get through to them. 

It’s time we give management a reality check. We, as the workers that keep Seattle Children’s Hospital running, need to start taking bold actions to show management we are willing to stand united and fight for the contract we deserve! 

Please come to our next Contract Action Team meeting on February 14 at 4:30PM.

At this meeting we will be discussing the big actions we have on the horizon and can go into detail about what we are proposing at the bargaining table. 

Our bargaining team wants to be as accessible as possible throughout this process and will begin hold “office hours” sessions periodically on evening, weekends, and other times when our coworkers may be available. To learn more about these sessions or our contract negotiations in general please call our Union Rep Christie Harris at 206-436-6606 and request to join our Slack channel. 

*Note: this is an office line and cannot receive text messages

In our bargaining session on February 17 we plan to push back hard against management and again propose the strong wages and other economic increases we need. Stay tuned for more updates, especially about upcoming actions.

“The hospital says they are expecting a contract settlement as soon as possible, but refuse to back that with any meaningful concessions. If they really think their current proposals will convince any people to stay, they are even more out of touch than we thought.”

— Madison Derksema, Pharmacy Tech

Our SCH Tech bargaining team: Matt Brabant - Respiratory Educator, Madison Derksema - Pharmacy Tech, Angela Ballard – Surgical Tech, Kellie Koenig – Ultrasound Tech, Ashley Strickland – Respiratory Transport, Tyler Schaffer – Anesthesia Tech, Tesfaldet Kidanemariam – Respiratory Therapist 

UFCW 1439 and UFCW 21 Members in Shock Over Shooting in Richland, WA Fred Meyer Store

For Immediate Release: February 7, 2022 1:30 PM
Contact: Tom Geiger, 206-604-3421

UFCW 1439 and UFCW 21 Members in Shock Over Shooting in Richland, WA Fred Meyer Store

Richland, WA – UFCW 1439 and UFCW 21 expressed deep concern for victims and survivors of a shooting that took place earlier today at a Fred Meyer store in Richland, WA. UFCW 1439 represents workers in this store, as well as other grocery stores in eastern Washington, food processing, and other industries. UFCW 21 represents workers at grocery stores in western Washington and many other industries across the state including health care workers in Richland, Washington.

“Our communities are standing together in support of our co-workers and others in the Richland community who have been impacted by this shooting. Workers in our local grocery stores have experienced many safety concerns over the last two years under COVID. This tragic shooting is another shock to all of us. No one should have to worry about their safety when going into a store to get groceries for their family. We stand together with everyone in our community against this violence.” said Eric Renner, President of UFCW 1439.

“Today, and in the coming weeks, we will do whatever we can to get support to the workers from this store and the local community,” added Faye Guenther, President of UFCW 21.

# # #

Combined, UFCW 1439 and UFCW 21 represent over 50,000 workers in grocery stores, health care, food processing and many other industries across Washington, northeast Oregon, and northern Idaho

St. Michael Medical Center RN - Bargaining Continues

“We were disappointed when management’s first proposal focused more on enhancing their contractual rights instead of working to address our concerns.”

Your Bargaining Team: Anne Burns, Brett Moore, Cindy Franck, Kimberly Fraser McMillan, Michael Nord, Tammy Olson

Your Bargaining Team met with management again on February 3, continuing contract negotiations for nurses at St. Michael Medical Center.

We began our session by passing additional proposals to the employer for their consideration, including:  

• Changes to how we recognize the past experience of new hires when placing them on the wage scale,

• Increases to both our Paid Time Off (PTO) accrual rates and the maximum allowed in your bank,

• Easier access to your Extended Illness Bank (EIB),

• Improvements to our language regarding paid holidays and bereavement leave, 

• And much more!

We also proposed an entirely new article titled “Health, Safety and Staffing,” all of which was identified as a major concern in the bargaining survey. When writing this new article, we researched union contracts up and down the west coast in search of solutions, using what we found to write language that would best address the unique problems at St. Michael Medical Center. This includes staffing ratios requirements, strong pandemic language (not just COVID-19), hazard pay, language regarding the refusal of hazardous assignments, and an improved process to report staffing concerns. 

The employer also provided your Bargaining Team with a proposal. Unfortunately, almost everything in their proposal was a power grab, only enhancing their own authority while failing to address any of the issues we brought to their attention. 

Management’s proposal included an increase to the resignation period (28-days instead of current 21 days), additional access restrictions for Union Representatives visiting the medical center, stripping per diems’ access to the grievance procedure, a broad and overreaching management’s rights clause, and more. 

The only benefit that management did propose was a B.S.N/M.S.N differential of one dollar per hour. While they were proud to offer this new premium, we have been asking for this differential for years and, after many neighboring hospitals already added the benefit to their contracts, they’re finally relenting. While we will certainly accept the addition of a B.S.N/M.S.N differential, we have a long ways to go until we reach a complete agreement with the Employer.  

We are scheduled to meet with the employer again on February 8 with additional dates scheduled through March. 

You’re Invited! 

Attend regular Contract Action Team (CAT) meetings to hear the latest updates regarding negotiations, plan actions to pressure management, and learn how to get your co-workers involved. Our next meeting is being held virtually Monday, February 7 @6:00PM 

St. Michael’s Medical Center (RN) February CAT Meeting

Monday, February 7

6:00PM

Contact your Bargaining Team or Union Rep for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.

Lourdes Medical Center - Bargaining Update

We met with the Employer on Thursday, February 3, for a round of bargaining. Although the Employer voiced recognition of the importance of being market competitive in terms of benefits and wages, their initial compensation proposal did not support the need.

Our Bargaining Team is working hard to address the inequities amongst facilities in the area and the need for recognition of longevity. We look forward to a complete response from the Employer to our comprehensive proposal at our next meeting on Thursday, February 24.

Please wear your sticker to show support to our Bargaining Team as we continue working towards a fair contract.

Please reach out to our Bargaining Team or Union Rep Maureen Hatton at 509-340-7370 with any questions or concerns.

Bargaining Team:
Jennifer Powell, RN - Surgery
Holly Kelly, RN - Admitting
Jessica Leon, RN - Med/Surg

PRMCE Techs Ratify Contract!

On February 2, 2022 Providence Everett techs voted online to approve a new contract through 6/30/25. The agreement includes robust across the board wage increases, many market adjustments, and improvements to step progression on the wage scales with NO TAKEAWAYS!

Need to join UFCW? Fill out your membership application!

Our PRMCE Professionals Bargaining Team: Maria Goodall, Vascular Ultrasound; Darryl Keffer, Respiratory; Rodney Powers, Diagnostic Imaging; Terryl Smith, Pharmacy Tech

PRMCE Professionals OVERWHELMINGLY Ratify Contract!

On February 2, 2022 Providence Everett professionals turned out in a big way for our online vote and approved a new contract through 3/1/25. The agreement includes robust across the board increases, many market adjustments, and improvements to step progression on the wage scales with NO TAKEAWAYS! 

ED Crisis Counselors UNANIMOUSLY voted with 100% turnout to join the Professional contract! Welcome to our union!

Need to join UFCW? Fill out your membership application!

PRMCE Professionals Bargaining Team: Deb Anderson, Medical Lab; Sara Dillon, Case Management; Emily Conner, Nutrition

Providence RadiantCare - Proposed wages that reflect service years

On February 1, we met with Providence Radiantcare Management for our seventh session. In this session, we presented to Management our petition which asks Providence to recognize our work with competitive wage rates in order to recruit and retain staff.

We believe that the petition along with our leaflet action and our comments at the bargaining table are starting to pressure Management into a better wage proposal. Providence presented to us a wage proposal which places each person onto the wage scale dependent on their years of service at Providence Radiantcare (or Radiantcare prior to Providence’s acquisition).

This proposal may result in 2% to 17% wage increases the first year of the contract. We will be costing out Management’s wage proposal to better determine if this proposal benefits the majority of our unit.

Hear from our Bargaining Team about negotiations! We will go more in-depth about the proposal and next actions during our next contract action Team Meetings.

Via Zoom
Thursday, February 3
6 PM
Contact a Bargaining Team Member for Zoom details. Details will also be emailed.

In Person
Wednesday. February 9
6 PM
Tugboat Annie’s
2100 W Bay Drive NW
Olympia, WA 98502

Kaiser Permanente - Update

New Contract

Wage Increases should be paid out starting with the paycheck on the week of February 4. We are working on finalizing the new contracts and will get them to you as soon as possible.

General Membership Meetings 

GMMs will be held February 9-11 in-person at a variety of locations. For more information go to here.

Covid Benefits

Work during the pandemic has been a constant challenge for all and we are requesting the KP WA step up and reinstate Covid Benefits and provide incentives. Discussions have been happening both locally and with the National Alliance to make this happen. Stay tuned for more information about how you can participate!

Safe Staffing

UFCW, SEIU and WSNA along with dozens of other unions and community organizations are working together in Olympia to show our state lawmakers that our community cares about safe staffing. Senate Bill 5751 and House Bill 1868 create laws to improve worker safety and patient care. We are collecting member stories to present to lawmakers regarding current working conditions and staffing challenges. You can find the petition link here:

For additional information contact:

Christina Delgado

Contract Specialist KP/UFCW 21 

Christina.a.delgado@kp.org

425.306.1357

Rhonda Fisher-Ivie 

UFCW Local 21 Union Representative

rfisherivie@ufcw21.org 

253.245.3739

Seattle Children’s Hospital - We Need an Answer!

Yesterday, February 1, 2022, our team met with management for our sixth negotiation session. Given that the Hospital has been celebrating the $1.4 billion dollars in donations they recently raised, the over $79 million dollars in federal grants they have received over the pandemic, and dire urgency of the ongoing staffing crisis, we were eager to see management’s response to our massive wage and premium increase proposals from our last session. 

Unfortunately, management disappointed us again and didn’t provide us a response on these important issues. We didn’t let this slow us down however, and we came ready with another robust set of proposals on many of the other economic improvements our workplace needs. Our second package covered a range of issues our team has heard our coworkers need addressed, including:

• A large retention bonus that would be offered to everyone

• The creation of a new vacation cash out procedure which would keep us from losing pay when the hospital denies our time off requests, along with language that would allow each department to modify the vacation request procedure to fit their needs

• A significantly higher employer matching percentage for our retirement fund

• Language to ensure that when we move up a level in our job title (i.e. ST I to ST II, RT I to RT 2, ect) we keep our years of experience the same, along with a separate agreement that would ensure workers who were left behind in the past are caught back up

• Language to make sure that opportunities for advancement in job title are equitably offered

• A higher Per Diem Premium

• Comprehensive parking language that would make parking on campus cheaper or free in many situations 

• Expansion of when we can receive overtime pay

• Guarantees that the benefits (like our health insurance, retirement fund, parking discounts, etc.) cannot be changed unilaterally by the hospital

• And much more

Unlike management (with their extremely weak and wildly inadequate wage proposal) we know that the hospital needs to make huge improvements to our compensation in order recruit and retain the workers needed to get out of this staffing crisis.  The economic package we proposed yesterday, combined with our top of the market wage and premium proposals we made in our last session would result in the single biggest set of improvements to our union contract ever and enable us to have the staffing levels we need to give our patients the best care possible. 

In our next session on Tuesday, February 8, we plan to propose the last couple of economic proposals; with that everything should officially be on the table. We hope that in this session, management will finally show us they understand the magnitude of the crisis we are in and come ready with serious responses to our economic proposals. We are currently under a contract extension through 2/28/22 but time is running out. Every day that goes by without these improvements we lose more talented coworkers. We can’t wait any longer.

Please join us for our upcoming Contract Action Team meeting tomorrow on Thursday, February 3, where we can discuss our economic proposals in more detail and will talk about what we can do to ensure we secure the wages and other improvements to our working conditions we need. You can RSVP for our meeting using the following link: 

If you have any questions at all, please call your Union Rep Christie Harris @ 206-436-6606*

*Note: this is an office line and cannot receive text messages

“We are holding firm. We want to make sure we get employees the benefits and wages that they deserve. Our goal with this contract is to retain our current employees and attract new hires. We will not back down!”

— Ashley Strickland, Respiratory Transport

Our SCH Tech bargaining team: Matt Brabant - Respiratory Educator, Madison Derksema - Pharmacy Tech, Angela Ballard – Surgical Tech, Kellie Koenig – Ultrasound Tech, Ashley Strickland – Respiratory Transport, Tyler Schaffer – Anesthesia Tech, Tesfaldet Kidanemariam – Respiratory Therapist 

Jefferson Pro Tech Clinic Contract Ratified!

Jefferson Pro Tech Clinic Contract Ratified!

On January 25 workers voted to ratify a contract that includes:

• Wage increases for all job classifications!

• Market Increases for jobs that were not

• paid competitively!

• $15 minimum wage!

• Full Retro back to the expiration of the last contract!

• One for one years of experience credit in the

• life of the contract!

• Temporary reduction of FTE language!

• Increases to premiums!

• And more…

Big Thank you to the Bargaining Team:

Robyn, Natalie, Kim, Kacie, Nell, Miychell, Monique!

St. Michael Medical Center RN - You’re Invited!

What is a Contract Action Team?

It’s a group of bargaining unit members who regularly gather (usually monthly) to hear the latest updates regarding negotiations, plan actions to pressure management into a fair contract, and learn how to get their co-workers involved. Commonly referred to as CAT meetings, they are a great opportunity to stay involved and provide feedback to your bargaining team as they work to negotiate your contract.

Who is invited to CAT meetings? 

Any St. Michael Medical Center nurse who is part of the UFCW Local 21 bargaining unit is welcome to join CAT meetings! Having high involvement within your Contract Action Team is crucial in winning a strong contract, so we encourage everyone to attend if your schedule permits. Because of the sensitive nature about what we discuss, non-union management is not permitted to join our meetings.

See you there!

Your bargaining team: Anne Burns, Brett Moore, Cindy Franck, Kimberly Fraser McMillan, Michael Nord, Tammy Olson

St. Michael’s Medical Center (RN) February CAT Meeting

Monday, February 7

6:00PM

https://zoom.us/join

St. Michael’s Medical Center (RN) March CAT Meeting

Wednesday, March 9 

6:00PM

https://zoom.us/join

Contact your Bargaining Team or Union Rep for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.

Providence RadiantCare Management rejects wage placement based on experience

On January 27, we met with Providence RadiantCare Management and reached an agreement on several non-economic articles. Management agreed to using job classification seniority in case of a lay-off, schedules can only be modified with mutual consent, and leaves of absence benefits cannot be changed during the life of the contract.

Most of our bargaining session focused on wages and compensation. Providence’s last proposal provides at least a 1.5% increase upon ratification. We believe the initial increase is not enough given that our unit has gone without a wage increase for almost two years and our wage rates are below the market. Providence continues telling us that they only consider clinic wage rates for our unit, but the reality is that Providence is competing with hospitals and clinics for caregivers. They should be looking at hospital and clinic rates!

Additionally, Providence told us that they are not interested in placing everyone at the appropriate wage rate commensurate to their experience. Under their proposal, a Radiation Therapist with two years of experience would be placed on the base step and a Radiation Therapist with six years of experience would be placed on Step 1. We told Management multiple times that many of us feel that there is an inequity in pay within our unit and their proposal will continue the inequity. We believe that we all deserve a competitive wage rate and caregivers with more experience should be paid more.

Our next bargaining session will be on February 1.

It is clear to us that in order to move them towards an equitable wage proposal, we will have to take collective action. Please continue wearing a sticker daily and stay tuned for future workplace actions.

Central Co-op - Bargaining Economics

“Seattle Co-op workers are standing with our Tacoma comrades to improve wages, bring stability to the Co-op, and ensure a better future for us as workers and for our communities.”
— Chris Paine, Seattle Produce Department

The union bargaining committee met with Central Co-op leadership on Friday, January 21, and Wednesday, January 26, to continue negotiations. Central

Co-op agreed to language for more timely responses time to PTO requests, gender-neutral language throughout the contract, and some general language clean-up.

Central Co-op has given us an abbreviated explanation of their current financial situation, and then at our next session gave us a brief summary of leadership’s plans to improve the business with more details promised in March after the board meeting. We appreciated the transparency and dialogue as we address our concerns about the current direction of the Co-op.

Last Friday, Co-op leadership made their economic proposals, and while we were happy that they proposed no cuts to our health care, they also proposed a 3-year wage freeze. We responded with our own wage proposal that gives Tacoma better equity, a ratification bonus for Seattle, and will get us back to the bargaining table to go after better wages in 18 months instead of 3 years. We also proposed stronger language to ensure that current employees’ experience is recognized on the wage scale.

We are also continuing to bargain over other issues like:

• Safety on the job and during this pandemic

• Improving retirement

• Clarify PTO cash outs

• New and expanded leaves

• A free shift meal

• Severance for store closure

We will be bargaining next on February 16, stay engaged and wear your stickers and union gear!

Our Bargaining Team:
Gordon Greenwood III - Seattle, Veronica Armstrong - Tacoma, Sydney Stenquist - Seattle, Chris Paine - Seattle, Kate White - Tacoma, Anne-Marie Cavanaugh - Secretary Treasurer UFCW 367, Lauren Vanwormer - Union Rep UFCW 21, Andy Heyman - Bargaining Rep UFCW 21

Seattle Children’s Hospital - Our Wages are officially on the table

Hear from our Bargaining Team about negotiations!
Thursday, February 3 @ 11 AM
>> RSVP HERE >> to get Zoom meeting details emailed to you.

“The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the status of our staffing. In some departments, the turnover is higher than 25%. A lot of employees are going on a traveling job because they’re underpaid and a lot more are needing to leave. We proposed competitive pay at SCH to fix this problem.”
-Tesfaldet Kidanemaria, Respiratory Therapist

Yesterday, January 25, our team met with Management for our fifth bargaining session. Management provided us with some counters to our non-economic proposals and we gave them the first half of our economics, which contained our initial wage and premium increase proposals.

It’s no secret that the hospital is currently experiencing a massive staffing crisis—a direct result from the criminally pitiful wages they pay us for the lifesaving work that we do. Day in and day out, each of us give our all to our patients, each other, and the hospital, going above and beyond by working longer hours, picking up extra shifts, and taking on duties outside of the roles we are paid for. We are specialized medical professionals, putting our lives on the line every day during this pandemic and giving up crucial time outside of work with our own families, all to keep the hospital functioning and make sure our patients get the care they need. But we are at a crossroads. We cannot continue to do this work unless there’s a significant change in how we are treated. We’ve heard our coworkers’ concerns over the last week and we know that Management’s wage proposals are nowhere near enough. The hospital needs to value us in the way that we value the kids we care for. We deserve better.

Getting out of this crisis will take bold action, so yesterday, we proposed historic, industry-leading wages for every single job classification. Unlike Management’s proposal (which would only bring us a little closer to the wages of other local hospitals), our wage proposal would skyrocket us to the top of the market immediately. We also proposed to get rid of the “ghost steps” in our current contract, to make sure we all see significant wage increases every year. In addition, since we strongly disagree with Management’s argument that our below market premiums and differentials don’t need to be increased, we also proposed industry-leading increases to all premiums and differentials. In particular, we proposed robust increases to the on-call/standby premium and raised the amount we receive when we are called into work. With top of the market wages and premiums, Seattle Children’s Hospital could recruit and retain new hires to fill the open positions as well as make it possible for those of us already here to stay long term.

Management’s stunned reaction at the table to our proposal shows us that we still have a long way to go. Our team is fighting hard at the table to convince them that these big changes are necessary, but we can’t win these much-needed wage and premium increases alone. We must stand together and demand that Management swiftly end the staffing crisis and provide the relief we desperately need.

Call Union Rep Christie Harris @ (206) 436-6606* today to ask how you can become more involved in what’s happening at the table and learn how you can join our upcoming Contract Action Team virtual meeting on February 3 @ 11 AM, where we can discuss the details of our economic proposal.

At our next bargaining session on Tuesday, February 1, we plan to offer the rest of our economic proposals on topics ranging from Time Away to overtime. Keep an eye out for the update afterward!

*Note: This is an office land line phone number and cannot receive text messages.

Bargaining Team: Matt Brabant - Respiratory Educator; Madison Derksema - Pharm Tech; Angela Ballard – Surgical Tech; Kellie Koenig - Ultrasound Tech; Ashley Strickland - Respiratory Transport; Tyler Schaffer - Anesthesia Tech; Tesfaldet Kidanemariam - Respiratory Therapist

Providence Sacred Heart - Wage Scale Revision

Providence has proposed a revision to the wage scale for Phlebotomists at Sacred Heart that would have across the board increases to the wage scale.

Because it is a change to our contract, we will need to have the affected members vote on the change.

All affected members in good standing are encouraged to vote YES! on Wednesday, February 2 @ 6:30 AM – 7:30 AM in the L2 A/B classroom. You must be in good standing and present to vote.

You will be provided with the proposal at the vote.

Providence Holy Family Lab - Wage Scale Revision

Providence has proposed a revision to the wage scale for Phlebotomy Lab Assistants that would have across the board increases to the wage scale.

Because it is a change to our contract, we will need to have the affected members vote on the change.

All affected members in good standing are encouraged to vote YES! on Tuesday, February 1, 2022 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM in the HEC2 room. You must be in good standing and present to vote.

You will be provided with the proposal at the vote.

Vote YES! on the proposed Phlebotomy Lab Assistant Wage Scale Revision

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

9:00 AM – 10:00  AM 

HEC2 room

Capital Medical Center Technical Service - NEGOTIATIONS COLLAPSE

“We cannot have a deal unless the employer compensates us for the time worked without a raise since our contract was scheduled to expire in October.”

Bargaining Team: Adam Swigart, Julie Hinchcliff, and Maureen Ciglia

Your bargaining team met with management again on January 21 and 24 to continue negotiations for your successor contract.

We are disappointed to report that negotiations collapsed late into Monday night. While the union had made significant movement towards an agreement, the employer refused to make any meaningful changes to their proposal that would indicate that they were ready for a deal.

In fact, your bargaining team began our Monday bargaining session by informing the employer that we were ready to work into the night to reach an agreement. By mid-afternoon the employer stated that they didn’t feel that working into the night would be worth the effort, signaling that they did not care to reach a deal. Despite the management’s lack of enthusiasm, we continued discussions late into the evening. 

The major problem remains their proposed reduction of our Extended Illness Bank accruals and the removal of the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday. The union made proposals to mitigate the effects of such changes, however, we made clear that retro-pay back to scheduled expiration is the key to reaching a settlement on these issues. The employer responded with an insulting $275 ratification bonus instead of retro. MultiCare made explicitly clear to your bargaining team that they have no interest in paying employees at Capital Medical Center retro pay, even though they offered it to UFCW members at Tacoma General and Auburn Medical Center last year.

We did have informal talks about a higher ratification bonus, but it was nothing close to what we are owed for all the hours we’ve worked since our contract was originally scheduled to expire in October.

To make matters worse, the employer surprised your Bargaining Team by LOWERING their proposed across the board increase in the first year. Management’s excuse was that they needed to make such an adjustment to pay for other “improvements” they were offering since they had already exceeded their authority on the cost of our contract.

Your bargaining team felt strongly that we cannot accept an offer that cut our EIB accruals, removed a paid holiday, included a first year across the board increase that was lower than our last session, and included an insulting ratification bonus. 

We made clear to the employer that the Union’s movement towards the employer’s demands were not only contingent on retro-pay, but would also expire on Monday at 11:59PM. Since we failed to reach a deal, the union’s offer is now off the table and not available to the employer.   

We are working to enlist the assistance of a federal mediator, at which point we will schedule additional bargaining dates with management. 

Next Steps:

Stand up against MultiCare by reaching out to a Bargaining Team member or Union Representative to get “Keep your Hands off our PTO & EIB” stickers that you can wear in your workplace. 

Attend regular Contract Action Team (CAT) meetings to hear the latest updates regarding negotiations, plan actions to pressure management, and learn how to get your co-workers involved. Our next meeting is being held virtually February 2 @ 6:00PM

Capital Medical Center CAT Meeting

Wednesday, February 2 • 6:00PM

https://zoom.us/join

Contact your Bargaining Team or Union Rep for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.

Providence St. Joseph Hospital - Wage Scale Revision

Providence has proposed a revision to the wage scale for Phlebotomy Lab Assistants that would have across the board increases to the wage scale.

Because it is a change to our contract, we will need to have the affected members vote on the change.

All affected members in good standing are encouraged to vote YES! on Tuesday, February 1 @ 12 PM – 1 PM in the DEC1 room. You must be in good standing and present to vote.

You will be provided with the proposal at the vote.

Central Washington Hospital Confluence Health Wage Scale Revision Vote

St. Michael Medical Center RN - Bargaining Begins!

Your bargaining team met with management for the first time on January 19, kicking-off negotiations at St. Michael Medical Center! While our contract isn’t scheduled to expire until May, getting an early start on negotiations will increase the chances of reaching an agreement before expiration. 

Our initial proposal, which primarily focused on non-economic items, included:   

• Improved language regarding Charge Nurses, 

• Broader application of preceptor pay,

• Modifications to CEDO, including fixes to low census standby,

• Stronger protections for Per Diem nurses,

• And much more!

Your Bargaining Team was also working to support House Bill 1868, which would implement new safe staffing standards across the state. A member of your team briefly stepped away from negotiations to testify in support of the proposed legislation, sharing with legislators the dangerous conditions that persist at St. Michael Medical Center. 

In addition to implementing safe staffing standards that protect you from dangerously high patient loads, the law would close loopholes to the existing overtime and rest break law and add additional enforcement mechanisms to ensure hospitals comply with the laws.

We are excited about the opportunities to improve our contract through negotiations; however, it is imperative that we simultaneously fight to improve the laws that will hold the hospital accountable for their failure to provide a safe working environment. You can help support HB 1868 by sending a letter of support to your legislator though this link: 

We are scheduled to meet with the employer again on February 3 with additional dates scheduled through March.

“As negotiations begin it is imperative that we support House Bill 1868, which would implement new safe staffing standards across the state.”

Your bargaining team: Anne Burns, Brett Moore, Cindy Franck, Kimberly Fraser McMillan, Michael Nord, Tammy Olson