Seattle Children’s nurses ratify new contract

Nurses secured wage increases, improved sick leave, and defeated anti-union proposals from management

SEATTLE, WA (February 2, 2026) — After 36 bargaining sessions, a strike authorization vote, and more than 20 hours of negotiation through a federal mediator, nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital have ratified a new contract. Throughout negotiations, nurses pushed to bring wages in line with the market rate, improve sick leave policies, and ensure a robust response to workplace violence. They authorized a strike in December, after months of negotiations with management — which brought in the anti-union firm Morgan Lewis — yielded little progress. A month later, nurses have overwhelmingly ratified a contract that makes progress on key issues, reports their union, the Washington State Nurses Association.

“Harnessing the incredible power of the bargaining unit, and with the looming threat of an open-ended strike, the Hospital made substantial movement toward our top priorities,” said the bargaining team.

Wages will increase over $13 per hour over the life of the contract, with a scale that provides higher wage increases for more junior nurses, where pay was further behind market rate, leading to serious recruitment and retention challenges. Nurses also secured incentives for night shifts, intended to keep experienced nurses working nights to protect patient and nurse safety.

Nurses held and informational picket at Seattle Children’s Hospital in September 2025.

Address the lack of adequate sick leave was a top priority for nurses at Children’s, with many reporting low sick leave banks meant they were forced to work while sick. Under the new contract, nurses will accrue leave more quickly and receive a deposit of hours into existing sick leave banks. The contract also includes new terms for sick leave use intended to reduce strain on workers’ leave banks.

The contract also includes four new types of leave to support the wellbeing of nurses: on the job injury leave, workplace violence leave, post-shift fatigue leave, and death of a patient leave. And nurses won measures to prevent and respond to workplace violence, including security personnel on the psychiatry and behavioral medicine unit.

Alongside these improvements, nurses also successfully fended off anti-union proposals from management, a radical departure from the hospital’s approach in previous contract negotiations. But nurses were successful in preserving union security and dues deductions, as well as a proposal to limit nurses ability to seek remedies if their legal rights are violated.

“In these negotiations, Seattle Children’s departed from its long-standing collaborative working relationship with its nurses’ union and proposed a long list of takeaways. The nurses successfully fought off the hospital’s aggressively anti-union, anti-nurse proposals, including a mandatory arbitration proposal that would have prevented nurses from going to court or pursuing class action lawsuits if the hospital violates nurses’ rights under the law,” said the union, announcing contract ratification.

The contract, which goes into effect today and runs through February 28, 2029, also includes full retro pay back to September of 2025.