Saint Michael Medical Center RN - Bargaining Update

Bargaining Team: Kim Fraser, Pre-Op; Janice Brown, FBC; Meredith Francisco, Med Surg; Lindsey Gearllach, Obs; Tammy Olson, ICU

On Tuesday, August 19, our bargaining team met with management for our 17th joint bargaining session since April. In the morning, we were presented with a package proposal from the employer that unfortunately ties our efforts to establish break relief RNs for all shifts to dropping our proposed robust staffing ratios. We have not yet responded to this but feel we need to establish some solution to our staffing issues that goes beyond the basics of what the law requires.

In our previous bargaining session a few weeks ago, we made a large move and chose to move away from our proposal to get our bargaining unit on the Sound Variable Annuity Pension Trust and instead codify the employer match to our 401K in our contract. This also means accepting management's suggestion that RNs also have access to the alternative retirement plan provided by Common Spirit. We were frustrated this week that the counterproposal drafted by management to resolve this issue was vague and did not spell out the matching percentages they say they are willing to commit to.

Additionally, we continue to experience resistance from the employer on aspects of our proposals around workplace violence. Considering the rise in violence experienced in hospitals, and in particular the recent murder at Allenmore Hospital in Tacoma, we strongly believe that robust safety protocols are for the benefit of all of our coworkers, our patients, and the public in general. Yet this management responsibility continues to be viewed by the employer primarily through the lens of the cost of certain proposals. This raises the question for us: How much is our safety worth to Saint Michael Medical Center?

Please continue to share our community support letter on social media and sign it yourself if you haven't already: 

Community Letter of Support >>

We will return to the bargaining table on August 25 and have two more sessions scheduled in September.

Capital Medical Center RN - Bargaining Update – August 6 Session

On August 6, we met with Capital Medical Center management to exchange proposals on retirement plans, wages, meal periods, and health insurance.

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.

Retirement Security

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.

Wages

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.

Looking Ahead

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.

Stay United

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:

Union Swag Pickup

August 12 (Tomorrow!)
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

August 29
6:30 AM - 7:30 AM & 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

For questions, reach out to your bargaining team or Union Rep, Kimberely Starkweather at 206-436-6515.

Capital Medical Center RN - Bargaining Update – Time to Step Up

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.

Contract Violations – Grievances Filed

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.

What's Next

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

Providence St. Peter Hospital RN - Bargaining Update

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.

A summary of our union's latest Staffing Article:

• 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
 

Contact Action Team Meeting

August 7
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Virtual Meeting

Meeting ID: 858 1875 0093
Passcode: 3000

In-Person Location

Washington State Labor Council Building - Olympia

• 3rd Floor Conference Room

• 906 Columbia St SW #330, Olympia, WA 98501

• Front door code: 3413

Sign the Strike Pledge >>

St. Joseph Hospital - Contract Ratified!

"We at St. Joseph Hospital ratified our contract unanimously. We are delighted with our new contract!"

— Maegan George, Bargaining Committee Member

Congratulations to Saint Joseph's RNs who ratified their new three-year contract. RNs at St. Joseph Hospital will see an 11.5% wage increase over the next three years, as well as increased premiums and other benefits. We worked hard with Management to improve many aspects of our working lives and feel that this contract is moving in the right direction. We deserve a contract that reflects the hard work we all do every day, and we can only do that by staying involved and informed.