SPOKANE, Wash. – Over 1,400 healthcare workers at MultiCare Deaconess and Valley Hospitals plan to strike for seven days beginning April 7, denouncing what they’re calling “bad faith bargaining” from institution executives in response to short staffing crises in their hospitals.
The SEIU Healthcare 1199NW union consists of over 33,000 caregivers throughout hospitals, clinics, mental health, skilled home health and hospice programs in Washington and Montana.
MultiCare workers have been attempting to address the institution’s failure to provide proposals regarding recruitment and retention issues since Aug. 2023, according to a release from the union.
Additionally, the union is also calling attention to MultiCare’s alleged neglect of workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act. According to the union, the institution has retaliated against workers engaged in union activity and has refused to provide requested information to support the bargaining process, which began on August 30, 2023.
“We’ve repeatedly raised our concerns with MultiCare executives about recruitment and retention, but they are bargaining in bad faith, refusing to listen to us, and proposing to take away some of our hard-earned contract standards,” said Callie Allen, a labor and delivery nurse at Valley Hospital. “We are fighting for respect for ourselves, our patients, and to uphold the federal labor laws which our employer continues to violate when they tell us we can’t communicate about union issues at work. We feel we have no choice but to take urgent action by withholding our labor to make our voices heard.”
Involved in the bargain is MultiCare’s ability to recruit and retain without competitive wages and premiums that align with the Spokane market, according to the release.
Other issues MultiCare workers are hoping to address include the hospital’s proposed changes to the workers’ healthcare benefits that would increase out-of-pocket costs, reductions to paid time off and sick leave and also their current refusal to implement protections around overtime, rest between shifts and call-back language
The healthcare workers issued a 10-day unfair labor practice strike notice to MultiCare on Wednesday, following the parties’ 19th bargaining session. The vote to strike, which ended on March 16, resulted in 93 percent of the union’s bargaining team in support of the proposed action.
“MultiCare executives must confront the stark reality of patient care decline due to severe understaffing, and how this impacts the communities living in Spokane and Spokane Valley,” said Jane Hopkins, RN, president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “A genuine investment in the workforce — not corporate pay and expansion — is a crucial step towards resolving this crisis and making good on MultiCare’s promise that ‘your communities are our communities.’ It is unacceptable that MultiCare’s commitment to quality patient care seems to apply only to its facilities in Western Washington. MultiCare must fix what is currently broken here before venturing into new communities. It’s time for a good contract that respects the workers’ experience and honors their sacrifices.”
In addition to all of these issues, the union has also brought up Multicare’s alleged plans to build new facilities across the state, which include potential in-patient facilities, clinics, urgent cares and free-standing emergency departments.
According to the SEIU Healthcare 1199NW union, these plans “reflect a pattern of reckless expansion while workers in existing MultiCare facilities in Eastern Washington face critical staffing issues, a lack of competitive wages, and daily impossible choices that risk compromising patient care.”
“We don’t want to strike but we will if we have to,” said Shawn Crawford, a Certified Nursing Assistant at Deaconess Hospital. “Despite our repeated appeals at the bargaining table and taking action in our departments and units, MultiCare executives have neglected to engage in good faith bargaining or listen to the insights of frontline staff. We’re calling on MultiCare to value the sacrifice of workers who have been on the frontlines of care throughout the pandemic. MultiCare executives in Tacoma say they care about our communities, but our hospitals on the East side of the state are struggling to provide quality care with the resources we have. Show us that you care. Our patients deserve better.”
