St. Joseph Medical Center employees plan strike
Published by SALISH CURRENT on 5/8/25 (Source)
As healthcare shortages continue, workers continue to fight for better conditions.
An estimated 900 service, tech workers and lab technicians of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham plan to initiate a five-day strike on May 12. Strikers cite equitable wages and affordable healthcare as their main concerns.
More than a thousand people attended an informational picket outside of St. Joseph Medical Center on April 29, including hundreds of nurses along with family members and fellow union members from other departments. Standing outside of the hospital, picketers shared frustrations with PeaceHealth, after 13 sessions of contract negotiations over the past three months haven’t resulted in satisfactory amendments.
“It’s really ironic that, in a community that relies on the nurses here, that (the nurses) can’t seem to access care — that they have to go hours to access an in-network provider,” said Justin Gill, president of the Washington State Nurses Association, or WSNA, said at the picket.