Tacoma nurses to picket amid contract fight

Registered nurses at Tacoma General and the Mary Bridge Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are frustrated by MultiCare management’s bargaining posture

TACOMA, WA (January 21, 2026) — More MultiCare healthcare workers will be hitting the pavement this week, as nurses at two facilities in Tacoma plan to picket Friday after what their union, the Washington State Nurses Association, characterizes as several “failed bargaining sessions.”

Central contact proposals concern staffing and wages. Nurses, who are fighting for safe staffing ratios and staffing plans are frustrated with management’s unwillingness to agree to evidence-based standards that save lives. Per WSNA, Tacoma General nurses have staffing ratios and want to keep them. But Mary Bridge NICU nurses no longer have those staffing ratio protections in their contract, and they want them back.

Washington state law requires that staffing plans are determined by committee, half of whose members are direct care providers and half of whom are management. Direct care providers like nurses have to work within the constraints of short staffing; but right now, staffing plans can be passed without a single WSNA nurse voting in favor of that plan.

Take the experience of neonatal intensive care unit nurses. WSNA nurses in Mary Bridge’s NICU work with infants who can become seriously ill on the turn of a dime, so nurses want to ensure they aren’t responsible for caring for more than three infants at a time, a science-based standard. Nurses fear that if management fails to staff the NICU appropriately, infant patients can face worse outcomes.

In a news release, nurses shared their staffing concerns.

“We will not give ratios up, and we reject the false choice that pits ratios against protections for staffing plans in the Hospital Staffing Committee. We demand both,” said a Mary Bridge NICU nurse.

Managers serving as charge nurses is another key concern for these nurses. Charge nurses are essential for providing patient care. But nurses say the practice of putting managers into that role is untenable; managers are frequently called away on other duties, leaving nurses short-staffed, reports WSNA.

“One of the problems is the staffing plan calls for a charge nurse, and these managers are not doing that role,” said a Tacoma General nurse.

Even when managers are on hand, the dynamic between rank and file nurses and management creates friction.

“When a charge nurse is now your manager with disciplinary authority, that’s a problem. It erodes the work of the unit,” the Tacoma general nurse added.

The next bargaining session is slated for Thursday, January 22.

The picket on Friday will be held outside Tacoma General Hospital at MLK Jr. Way and 5th Street. The morning session is from 6 a.m.-9 a.m. The afternoon session is from noon-2 p.m. A rally is being held at 1 p.m.