Today we met with MultiCare for our sixth day of bargaining. We are still disappointed with the number of extreme takeaways on the table and how far apart we are on wages, less rest, callback pay, among others.

Management is still insisting on taking away ratios (we came to the brink of a strike vote to get those ratios!) and the clinical service lines. In addition, MultiCare proposed removing President’s Day as a premium (paid) holiday! We proposed substituting Juneteenth, but MultiCare is far more interested in takeaways than justice – they suggested that units can choose to observe unpaid holidays instead.

Additionally, they have proposed a new holiday scheduling system that allows nurse to rank their holiday preference by a block of days, with consideration to previously worked holidays and seniority, but leaves the final decision to MultiCare managers to decide what you are working.

Although we did see movement on wages, we are still far apart. MultiCare’s most recent proposal offered the illusion of high wages by providing highest wages to the smallest group of nurses and offered meager increases to nurses under Step 10. The majority of our bargaining unit is being offered less than 15% over 3 years. That’s how much other nurses in the area are getting in the first year! This is not enough! This falls below the wages of competitors as well as inflation in this area!

Other hospitals are raising wages in the middle of their contracts to try to get nurses – Tacoma General is in a race to the bottom and will lose talented and committed nurses to its competitors.

If you would like additional information, please join us online for Thirsty Thursday from 8:00 pm to 9:00 p.m.

If you would like to be more involved, we are always looking for volunteers to help spread information and increase the impact of our Union actions. Please email Crystal Doll at cdoll@wsna.org.

As always, please contact Brenda Balogh with questions or concerns about our current contract bbalogh@wsna.org

Your bargaining team,
Danielle O’ Toole, Local Unit Chair, Resource
Liz Leske, Secretary, PACU
Michelle Stevenson, Grievance Officer, Med Surg
Matt Dustin, NT ICU
Mallory Gregoire, Med Onc
Liana Delacorte, ED
Cherrie Griffith, Grievance Officer, Med Surg
Jess Oyler, OR
Cameron Warriner, NICU
Brenda Bowhay, Grievance Officer, FBC
Colin Bishop, PULSE