In March, healthcare workers at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, WA ratified historic contracts with NO takeaways and the largest wage increases we’ve ever seen at EHK!
We secured raises of 15-20% for everyone over the next 16 months, a $1,000 ratification bonus, past experience recognition, a personal holiday, and more.
We strengthened our union voice with better tools to build our union, such as a provision that ensures management remains neutral about membership in our union, paid delegate training for social workers and chaplains, access to virtual New Employee Orientation, more funding for Equity and Inclusion workshops for our Labor Management Committee, guaranteed compensation for our bargaining team in our next contract negotiations, and more methods to stay connected with each other, such as phone number lists.
Our unity and willingness to take bold collective action is what moved EvergreenHealth administration to settle the contract we need to recruit and retain.
Earlier this year at Valley Medical Center in Renton, WA we ratified strong contracts after bargaining a two-phase contract reopener to address wages. At the end of Phase II, everyone, in every job class, won an across-the-board wage increase of at least 8.5% (or dollar amounts, whichever is higher), plus additional market-based increases and improved premiums and differentials.
On average, every job class began this wage reopener with wages that lagged behind area market rates, and across-the-board wage increases moved us further in the market. However, we knew that not every job class would be competitive for recruitment and retention without additional market-based increases. That’s why our bargaining team fought until the very end to include market adjustments for jobs that continued to fall behind market.
We stood together in our message that we would not leave any of our coworkers behind – we are all essential. We consistently put pressure on management until they responded to our proposals with percentages closer to what we knew we deserved — that’s the union difference!