Wenatchee healthcare workers win union

New bargaining unit increases union density and worker power at major hospital in Chelan County

WENATCHEE, WA (December 2, 2025) — Over 100 pharmacists, therapists, social workers, nutritionists, and more at Confluence Health Hospital voted to join UFCW Local 3000 earlier this month, expanding the ranks of healthcare workers at the hospital organized with the union. This new bargaining unit brings the total number of UFCW 3000-represented staff to over 550 healthcare workers.

“We’ve been coming together to form a union because we want better wage transparency, protections for what we already have and improvements for equity and patient safety, and an overall stronger voice for respect on the job,” said Trevor Schultz, a pharmacist and one of the workers at Confluence Health Hospital who helped lead the drive to get a union.

Newly-union healthcare workers at Confluence Health Hospital in Wenatchee pose for a photo to celebrate joining UFCW 3000. Photo: UFCW 3000

Union membership is on the rise among healthcare workers in recent years, emerging at the same time as consolidation of hospitals and health systems, as well as the influx of private equity money, has dramatically reshaped healthcare workers’ jobs and how medical institutions approach care. The pressure cooker of the COVID-19 pandemic stressed the cracks in our healthcare system, pushing more healthcare workers to form and join unions to ensure sustainable working conditions and the best possible treatment conditions for patients.

Workers in unions typically earn higher wages, enjoy better benefits, and have a stronger voice on the job, than not-yet-unionized workers, empowering union members to directly engage with their boss over working conditions, fair treatment, compensation, and more.

So for healthcare workers at Confluence Health Hospital, securing their union is just the first step towards improving both patient care and working conditions in tandem.

“The vote to join together as now 550 UFCW 3000 health care workers under one roof will increase the bargaining power of all the Confluence workers,” said the union in a statement. “The recently joining 100 new members will now begin the process of bargaining a contract with their employer and this improved union density will assist in that process.”

“We’re looking forward to the next step of bargaining a first contract,” said Schultz. “This will not only help us as workers, but also improve patient care. We’re also excited to join the other 450 Confluence Health Hospital workers who are already members of UFCW 3000.”