Peace Island Nurses Deserve Better: Fair Wages, Safety, and Respect

The cost of living on San Juan Island continues to soar—housing costs alone are 32% higher in San Juan County than in Whatcom County. Nearly every essential good and service is more expensive here. Yet, PeaceHealth management is proposing to base our wages on the St. Joe’s wage scale (from a completely different region) with just a 4% geographic differential—a figure that doesn’t even begin to cover the actual cost of living here.

At the same time, they express concerns about recruiting and retaining staff. But their proposals contradict that concern:

Management Proposal Overview

1. Shift Differential Changes
   • Day Shift Impact:
     Management proposes eliminating the evening shift differential for day shift nurses who work a majority of their hours before 7 p.m.
     • Currently, these nurses receive an 11% differential for 4 hours of their shift.
     • Under the proposal, this pay boost would be removed, resulting in a loss for day shift nurses.
   • Night Shift Impact:
     Night shift nurses would receive an additional 8% differential for the first 4 hours of their shift.
     • While this means a slight gain for night shift staff, the overall cost to the hospital drops, allowing it to save 3% on differentials.
2. Annual Leave Cap Changes
   • The hospital wants to change the cap on annual leave accrual.
   • Current cap: 600 hours.
   • Proposed cap: 1.5× the annual accrual max.
   • Impact: This reduces scheduling flexibility and effectively penalizes employees.
3. Wage Proposal
   • Proposed base rate: $46.11/hour, based on St. Joseph’s pay scale and step system.
   • However, St. Joe’s scale:
     • Offers smaller increases over time compared to our current system.
   • This could negatively affect long-term wage growth for nurses here.
   • Reduces the number of steps.

Our Bargaining Team Has Proposed Real Solutions:

To help recruit and retain nurses, we’ve proposed fair and competitive compensation:

• A 13% base wage increase (to $47.01/hour)
• Applying the current Peace Island step increases to this new base wage
• Eliminating "ghost steps" that delay pay progression
• One unified wage scale for both clinic and hospital nurses
• An additional 4% wage increase in Year 2 and Year 3 of the new agreement

Safety and Security: Still Not Addressed

WSNA has been advocating for years for better safety and security at Peace Island. Yet management continues to make excuses why they cannot provide 24/7 on-site security and refuse to include any security language in our contract.

Our team has offered practical, reasonable solutions:

• Voluntary education benefits that improve health, safety, and caregiver satisfaction
• If no security personnel are present, the Administrator on Call or designee must be physically present to fulfill security duties

PeaceHealth continues to dismiss our security proposals and deflect the issue to the Conference Committee. We’ve heard it all before. The bottom line: we need real solutions, not more delays.

Emergency Flight Insurance: Still Not Covered

We are also fighting for emergency medical flight insurance—a critical benefit for our remote island community. Nurses deserve to know that they will be protected in an emergency.

Mediation Ahead

Management has proposed mediation with the same mediator who supported the last St. Joe’s negotiation, and we have agreed to this approach. However, we enter this with clear eyes: mediation is not a solution by itself; it must be paired with a genuine commitment to address our issues.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, is our next scheduled negotiation date and will be our first day with the mediator.

What’s next …. Informational Picket

We have reasonable solutions to all these problems: fair wages, safety and security, no takeaways.  PeaceHealth has not provided any realistic solutions to the problems nurses face every day. NOW we need to stand strong together and show PeaceHealth that our patients’ needs and our own needs must be met!

We are gearing up for an informational picket, and now is the time for all Peace Island nurses who demand better to be united.  Signing a picket pledge is a critical step toward launching an informational picket. If you’re wondering what a pledge means, why we’re asking for it, or what an informational picket actually is—check out our FAQ.

To be clear: an informational picket is not a strike. If you’re scheduled to work that day, you still report to work—but join us during your meal and rest breaks.

Want in?
Contact a bargaining team member:

Lesley Preysz – ED
Morgan Timmons – ED
Julie Bielau – PACU
Zanna Cochran – Clinic
Chris Wachholz – Per Diem

Together, we can fight for the fair wages, security, and respect we and our patients deserve.