Strike vote averted as Tacoma General, WSNA reach deal

UPDATE (Dec 16, 2016) — Today’s coverage from the News Tribune — Strike vote averted as Tacoma General, nurses reach tentative agreement — A strike advisory vote for more than 700 nurses at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, scheduled for Friday, has been canceled. The Washington State Nurses Association said in a news release sent shortly after 7 a.m. Friday that it had come to a tentative agreement with MultiCare Health System on nurse staffing ratios.

UPDATED (Dec. 15, 2016) — Today’s coverage from the News Tribune — Tacoma General nurses rally on chilly overpass before federal mediation session — Nurses for MultiCare’s Tacoma General Hospital staged a rally at a Tacoma overpass Wednesday morning before a session with federal labor mediators. Around 200 nurses and their supporters attended the rally in subfreezing temperatures. Around 730 registered nurses who work at the hospital have been without a union contract for a year.

Meanwhile, the WSNA tweets: “Mediation talks continue today (Thursday) at noon. Strike Advisory vote is, at this point, still scheduled for Friday.”

(Dec. 13, 2016) — The following Call to Action is from the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA):

TACOMA — All union members and community supporters of putting patients before profits are urged to join in a community action in support of nurses at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 14 from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Participants will gather for supplies and direction at the lower edge of Lincoln Park at 35th and S. Thompson Ave. from 7:30 to 7:55 a.m. and then head to the I-5/S. Yakima Avenue Overpass for sign and banner waving in support of the nurses. (Download, post and share an event flier.)

This action is particularly important as it is happening the morning that the Tacoma General nurses’ union, the Washington State Nurses Association, has its final scheduled mediation session before a strike advisory vote on Friday, Dec. 16. The community needs to send a clear message to the MultiCare and Tacoma General that the nurses demand better from their hospital.

For more than a year, WSNA has been negotiating with Tacoma General for a new contract. Nurses are turning up the heat on administration to settle a fair contract that includes assurances that the current unsafe staffing will be changed to meet national standards for safe and appropriate RN staffing levels. The union says that unsafe staffing places patients’ lives at risk, because nurses are forced to care for too many patients to provide the care their patients need and deserve.

WSNA nurses have had enough of the false promises and empty assurances that administration has offered so far to avoid taking their concerns seriously. Nurses need a Fair Contract NOW!

Learn more at the Nursing Strong Tacoma General page on Facebook.