Seattle Children’s nurses fighting for their rights, set to info picket Sept. 30

Seattle Children’s nurses are in a massive contract fight and will hold an informational picket Tuesday, Sept. 30 to voice their anger over the hospital’s unresponsiveness in negotiations.

The Washington State Nurses Association, which represents over 2,100 nurses at Chidren’s, will be holding an informational picket Sept. 30 outside the hospital (4800 Sand Point Way in Seattle) from 6 a.m.-9 a.m. and 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The nurses are up against lawyers from Morgan Lewis, one of the most prominent anti-union law firms in the country, which Seattle Children’s hired to negotiate the contract. This is the first time Seattle Children’s has hired a major union-busting law firm to bargain the nurses’ contract.

The nurses are fighting for several issues, including:

• Workplace violence prevention: Greater protections for nurses and patients against workplace violence, including moving swiftly on a pilot program to screen for weapons and enhancing security on the Psychiatric and Behavioral Health Unit.
• Hospital-wide break nurses: Not all units have break nurses, which means when nurses take a break, they leave another nurse with an unsafe double load of patients. Seattle Children’s nurses want dedicated relief nurses so that they can take the breaks they are legally entitled to without compromising patient care.
• Higher wages: Nurse wages at Seattle Children fall behind many other West Coast children’s hospitals.
• Increased sick time accrual: Nurses are proposing increased sick leave accrual so that they are able to take sick time without the fear of discipline or losing their jobs. Sick nurses should be able to stay home when they’re sick—and not endanger co-workers and vulnerable young patients

Nurses are also fighting significant anti-union proposals from Seattle Children’s that include eliminating long-standing contract guarantees like union security, dues deductions from paychecks, and employer-paid health premiums.

Morgan Lewis is the firm used by anti-union employers such as Tesla, SpaceX and Amazon. The firm is representing SpaceX in a lawsuit arguing that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.

Seattle Children’s Hospital is the wealthiest and most profitable large hospital system in Washington. Its profit margin of 14% in the 2024 fiscal year and 13% in 2025 through the third quarter provide a large cushion against future uncertainty in the healthcare industry.

Seattle Children’s decides where to put its money and it needs to invest in the people who make excellent patient care possible.