WSNA: St. Joseph deal is ‘a major victory’

TACOMA (July 15, 2019) — Nurses represented by the Washington State Nurses Association at CHI Franciscan St. Joseph Medical Center, who were poised to take a strike authorization vote this week, reached a tentative agreement with hospital management after a marathon negotiation session Friday and into early Saturday morning.

The union, which is calling the deal a “major victory… that achieved gains on in all three of our key priorities on wages, staffing and retro pay,” has cancelled the strike vote and is recommending ratification of the agreement by the members.

The following was posted Saturday at the WSNA:

Early Saturday morning, after negotiating for 17 hours with the assistance of Federal Mediators, we reached a tentative agreement with hospital administration.

We achieved:

• • FULL retroactive pay, 3% on all gross earnings back to Nov. 1, 2018;
  • Higher wage increases of 6.5% upon ratification and 3.5% on Nov. 1, 2020;
  • Extra shift incentive of $5/hr. will be added to the RN’s regular rate of pay for 0.6 FTE and above;
  • Delayed implementation of increased per diem work requirements to Jan. 1, 2020, but immediate increase in wages upon ratification;
  • Stronger nurse staffing committee language and actual commitments to begin the process of improving staffing;
  • Plus, all previously negotiated tentative agreements

This is a major victory! We achieved gains in all three of our key priorities on wages, staffing and retro pay. The Rapid Response Organizers diligently and systematically had one-on-one conversations with every nurse and collected signatures on strike pledge petitions in unprecedented numbers. Members were united and committed. Together, we did it!

The Strike Authorization Vote on July 15 & 16 is officially canceled.

We will use the originally scheduled dates and times so that you can come and hear about the details of the new contract. The team recommends this tentative agreement and will be available at the meetings with WSNA staff to answer questions.