Our Bargaining Team met with MultiCare on Wednesday, August 28 to kick-off negotiations for our RN Collective Bargaining Agreement. This time around in negotiations, we’re also excited to welcome the newly-unionized Diabetes Educators to the table with us!

The Diabetes Educators RNs at Mary Bridge voted to join our union this summer, and we are working to negotiate their addition into our existing contract—such as how they’ll be paid on the nursing wage scale, their seniority in our bargaining unit, and making sure they get all of the other benefits our CBA with UFCW 3000 has to offer!

Going into our initial bargaining session with Management, our team felt very prepared to present MultiCare with proposals based on surveys our co-workers returned to us, and conversations at the worksite about what our priorities are. Today, we gave Management proposals on:

• Overtime & extra shifts compensation

• The Charge Nurse assignment process

• Staffing language (& a new staffing premium!)

• Increases to many of the premiums and differentials in our contract.

Lastly, while preparing to meet with MultiCare, we compared our current wages to other regional nursing contracts and union market wages, and we presented Management with a wage scale proposal focused on lifting our pay to not only be competitive with surrounding MultiCare hospitals, but also competitive with the regional market for nurses throughout Washington State!

“We’re excited to have started the process of organizing a union, winning our union election, and now bargaining our contract all so fast! We’re looking forward to what the future holds!” -Melissa, Diabetes Educator RN @ Mary Bridge

“Sitting at the bargaining table for the first time, I can already see all of the hard work that has been put into this contract in the past; I hope that MultiCare recognizes the hard work that we do every day, and that their responses reflect our value!” -Jodi McWhirter, PICU/Transport RN @ Mary Bridge