Tacoma General and Mary Bridge NICU nurses to picket Jan. 23

After failed bargaining sessions with MultiCare, registered nurses at Tacoma General and the Mary Bridge Neonatal Intensive Care Unit will be picketing Jan. 23 to voice their frustration.

The picket on Friday will be held outside Tacoma General Hospital at MLK Jr. Way and 5th Street.

The morning session is from 6 a.m.-9 a.m. The afternoon session is from noon-2 p.m. A rally is being held at 1 p.m.

The Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), which represents more than 1,100 registered nurses at Tacoma General and Mary Bridge, said cutting corners on safety hurts everyone in the long run and calls on MultiCare to invest in their nurses and patients.

The issues:

Protect ratios and staffing plans

Nurse-to-patient ratios are non-negotiable, say nurses. Ratios are evidence-based with a proven track record of success. Tacoma General has ratios and wants to keep them. Mary Bridge NICU nurses no longer have them and want them back.

Tacoma General attracts nurses because they have these ratios, but management wants the nurses to make a choice between keeping the ratios or keeping staffing committee protections. Nurses want both.

As required by law, staffing plans are created by a committee with 50 percent direct patient care representatives (nurses and CNAs) and 50 percent administration. WSNA wants staffing committee protection to ensure that no staffing plan is passed without a WSNA nurse voting in favor of it.

Babies in the NICU, for example, can get sick in a moment and nurses want to be sure they are not asked to care for more than three babies per nurse, as recommended by experts in neonatal care. If nurses are pushed to take care of more babies, they said there will be worse outcomes.

Currently, staffing plans can be passed even if every single NICU nurse thinks doing so would endanger patients.

“We will not give ratios up, and we reject the false choice that pits ratios against protections for staffing plans in the Hospital Staffing Committee. We demand both,” said a Mary Bridge NICU nurse.

No more managers acting as charge nurses

Nurses want to end the MultiCare practice of having clinical assistant nurse managers filling the role of a charge nurse. These managers are not part of the union contract and have different priorities. Nurses say these managers often dress in business casual, not scrubs, and are pulled away into all kinds of management duties, such as attending publicity events and management meetings. This leaves a unit without a skilled charge nurse who can do bedside care.

“When a charge nurse is now your manager with disciplinary authority, that’s a problem. It erodes the work of the unit,” said a nurse at Tacoma General. “One of the problems is the staffing plan calls for a charge nurse, and these managers are not doing that role.”

Fair, competitive wages

Nurses are asking for wages that recruit and retain nurses, not wages that push experienced nurses out the door to nearby hospitals.

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Jan. 22.

Nurses hope the pressure of hundreds of nurses preparing to picket moves management.