On October 17, a strong majority of RNs voted to ratify our new contract! After six months of negotiations, we now have a stronger agreement that improves wages, safety, and working conditions.
Read MoreAfter six months of tough negotiations and a powerful, newsworthy informational picket, our determination paid off — we’ve reached a tentative agreement! After seventeen hours of bargaining, we were finally able to reach a settlement agreement around 3am on Tuesday, October 7!
Read MoreWe will be holding an informational picket on Thursday, October 2, from 3:30pm to 5:00pm on the corner of Myhre Road and Ridgetop Blvd. We look forward to seeing our fellow RNs, friends, family, and community members on our informational picket line! Remember that children and friendly pets are welcomed!
Read MoreYesterday (Wednesday, September 17) we held an all-day contract vote on Management’s “Best and Final” offer we were presented with in our last bargaining session on September 5. While we were able to win many improvements on premiums and contract language prior to September 5th, there are still significant unresolved issues. In its totality, the Hospital’s last proposal was not enough to improve staffing, so we recommended a NO vote.
Read MoreOn Friday, September 5 our Bargaining Team met with Management to continue negotiations. We began at 9am and stayed until September 6 at 2:30am Unfortunately, in their last proposal that would resolve the remaining issues, we were given a “Best and Final” offer. We are recommending a “no” vote and moving forward with a contract vote and informational picket to highlight our issues and share our message with the community.
Read MoreOn Monday, August 25, our RN Bargaining Team met with Hospital management to continue negotiations. We secured a tentative agreement that locks in the Hospital’s 401(k) contributions for the life of the contract—management cannot cut them. We also won new language granting RNs access to the Hospital’s cash balance retirement plan beginning January 2027.
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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:
We will return to the bargaining table on August 25 and have two more sessions scheduled in September.
This summer, hospitals across the state took a few more big steps toward implementing Washington’s safer staffing law, a union member-led measure to help nurses deliver the level of care their patients deserve.
At St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale, WA, medical-surgical nurse Meredith Francisco, who served on the new staffing committee, says the process worked out well enough. However, as many of us suspected when the landmark legislation passed in 2023, she and other nurses see room for improvement. Workers also voice serious concerns about loopholes that hospital managers already appear to be exploiting.
Our Bargaining team will be holding a meeting at the UFCW 3000 Silverdale office this Thursday (08/07/2025) after our day of negotiations scheduled with Management.
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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.
On Thursday, July 24 our Bargaining Team had a joint bargaining session with Management. We have continued to push them on our need for a wholistic approach to break relief.
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.
