Linda,

WSNA has received a copy of the email you sent to WSNA represented nurses on January 15, 2026, titled “WSNA Negotiations Update.” We are disappointed that Tacoma General leadership continues to minimize or overlook the core issues nurses have repeatedly raised at the bargaining table. Your message also implies that union representatives are not focused on negotiations, which is inaccurate.

Since our first negotiation date on October 14, and across the ten bargaining sessions held since then, WSNA has been clear and consistent about our members’ priorities. We have bargained in good faith and made progress on multiple important topics. However, Tacoma General leadership has failed to make meaningful movement on several key issues necessary to ensure safe staffing, safe working conditions, and the protection of bargaining unit work.

Your email notably fails to even mention the issue that has taken up significant discussion time at the bargaining table and one of the key issues nurses are picketing over: the use of Clinical Assistant Nurse Managers (CANMs) to replace bargaining unit nurses in the charge nurse role. WSNA has shared repeated examples of how the CANM model has created unsafe conditions, disrupted unit communication, and removed development opportunities from the bargaining unit. For the safety of their patients, nurses are demanding that charge nurses be union nurses, every shift, every time.

Your email also fails to acknowledge that management has continued to insist on language that would allow it to change staffing plans, even if not a single nurse supported the plan. WSNA is asking for the most basic of safeguards – ensuring that changes to nurse staffing plans are supported by a majority of the staffing committee that includes at least one nurse. 

Your email dismisses the serious concerns nurses have raised regarding Baylor shifts and excessive call burdens. WSNA has never disputed that Tacoma General currently utilizes some Baylor shifts. The issue raised at the bargaining table is the unsafe and unsustainable practice of nurses being required to work extensive call hours beyond minimum requirements due to chronic short staffing in procedural areas, including highly specialized teams. Our proposals are designed to reduce unsafe call burdens and improve recruitment and retention in these departments. To date, Tacoma General leadership has declined these proposals and has attempted to characterize these concerns as unique to other facilities. WSNA strongly disagrees.

These, and other vital issues, such as ensuring that Tacoma General is able to retain nurses on night shift, are what we have been fighting for. We will continue fighting for these issues on the picket line

Our members are fully aware of the time, preparation, and focus that WSNA nurses and representatives have brought to negotiations. We encourage Tacoma General leadership to be more transparent with employees about the proposals repeatedly rejected at the bargaining table, including those that address our members’ most urgent priorities.

WSNA will continue to bargain in good faith with MultiCare leadership, and we remain hopeful we can reach a fair agreement prior to the planned informational picket. However, if Tacoma General leadership remains unwilling to address these unresolved issues, nurses will continue escalating their collective action to ensure patient safety, safe working conditions, and respect for bargaining unit work.

Sincerely,
Jared Richardson, MN, RN
WSNA Nurse Representative
Washington State Nurses Association

CC: TCGEN Local Unit Members