Seattle Children’s nurses set Dec. 21 – 22 for strike vote

Registered nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital will be voting Dec. 21 and 22 on whether to go on strike.

The vote comes after 32 sessions, an informational picket, a full-page ad in Seattle Times, and a social media reel by Seattle Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson urging the hospital to bargain in good faith.

The nurses are taking the action as a last resort.

“We don’t want a labor dispute. We don’t want to strike. We want a fair contract that protects nurses’ legal rights, ensures patient safety, compensates nurses injured by workplace violence, and maintains the union strength that has made this institution exceptional,” the nurses wrote in a full-page ad in The Seattle Times.

The ad ran in the Sunday newspaper Nov. 30 outlining why they are preparing to strike.

Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson threw in her support of the nurses reaching a fair contract by posting a video on social media platforms Dec. 12.

“I am calling on Seattle Children’s to step up and do right by nurses, their patients, and our entire city,” she said. “In Seattle, we stand with nurses.”

WSNA’s Labor Executive Council authorized the strike vote after meeting with members of the bargaining team Dec. 14.

The nurses have also received public support from eight Washington State legislators, local labor partners, and Dr. Benjamin Danielson, the former medical director of Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic. (See our story published Oct. 21.) More than 1,100 nurses attended the Seattle Children’s informational picket Sept. 30.

In letters to the hospital’s board of trustees and c-suite executives, nurses have called on hospital leadership to restore the organization’s stated values of antiracism, uninterrupted breaks (so nurses can rest, hydrate, and eat), and the mutual benefit of a strong, organized nurses’ union.

In stark contrast to decades of respect and cooperation with WSNA, Seattle Children’s brought in lawyers from one of the biggest antiunion law firms in the country to advance proposals that would strip nurses of existing rights. Progress has been excruciatingly slow, with the hospital waiting until well into the evening to send proposals even though the nurses were ready to bargain since 9 a.m. It took 28 bargaining sessions for the hospital to agree to keep existing language that “Racism has no place at Seattle Children’s.”

Nurses have also been told their proposals for market wages, break relief, and investments that would improve nurse health and patient safety are unreasonable, prompting nurses to wear T-shirts saying, “Proudly unreasonable.”

Note: At the time of writing, the social media reel by Mayor-Elect Wilson has been viewed more than 107,000 times on Instagram, and the news about the full-page ad in The Seattle Times has been viewed 48,000 times on Instagram with 200 shares.