Seattle Children’s nurses in prolonged talks, hold info picket

Seattle Children’s nurses are in a massive contract fight and held an informational picket Sept. 30 to voice their anger over Seattle Children’s refusal to agree to common sense proposals that would recruit and retain skilled nurses, protect nurse health and safety, and prioritize patients over profits.

More than 1,000 nurses took part in the picket, which was covered by several local media outlets —KIRO-TV, FOX 13-TV, KOMO-TV, KING TV, KUOW, and Seattle Gay News.

The nurses are asking for better working conditions to care for some of the most critically ill young patients in the state and beyond. They are asking for better security protection especially in the psychiatry and behavioral medicine unit to stem workplace violence, break nurses so they can take a break without leaving their coworkers with unsafe patient loads, increased sick time so they don’t have to choose between coming in to work sick and potential discipline, and wages that are competitive with West Coast pediatric hospitals.

The WSNA bargaining team, representing more than 2,100 registered nurses at Seattle Children’s, has held 19 bargaining sessions so far.

Seattle Children’s hired a prominent anti-union law firm to conduct these negotiations, and the hospital administration is proposing deleting long-held union protections from the contract.

The next scheduled bargaining dates are Oct. 16, 17, 29, 30, and Nov. 3.