Bargaining Update: Skagit Regional Health
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Skagit Regional Health
More Momentum & More Roadblocks
“Bargaining is frustrating, but we are finally starting to get some forward momentum. We appreciate your solidarity and support as we get closer to a contract we can feel comfortable presenting to you!” -Megan Osborn, Med Tech
On Wednesday June 1 our Bargaining Team met with Management for the seventh joint negotiation session. We presented Management with multiple counter proposals, including one regarding telecommuting which would ensure we have control over how we work from home and includes a stipend for the technology costs we take on when doing so. Management provided some counters as well. While we were able to reach several tentative agreements on a couple of proposals, we were sad to see that Management chose to reject some of our most important ones, including a creation of a committee that would give us voice in staffing matters. Management also rejected our proposal to make swapping to variable shifts fully optional, despite the serious concerns our coworkers have expressed about being forced into these positions.
In order to clear the way for negotiating important economic issues, like wages and benefits, we need Management to work with us and find solutions to these important outstanding non-economic issues. While our team has been hard at work developing our initial wage and premium proposals, we won’t let Management force us into giving up on these other important topics that also affect recruitment and retention.
In our next session we hope that management will work with us to find real solutions so we can fully dive into the rest of our economic negotiations. In order to ensure that, we need to keep up the pressure and take actions to show Management we are united for a strong contract.
Our next session will be this Wednesday June 8, stay tuned for more updates.
If you have any questions about the bargaining process,
please call our Union Rep Celia at (360) 419-4678.
Join us at the next Contract Action Team (CAT) meeting!
on Tuesday, June 21 at 1PM and 6PM. RSVP and join via Zoom.
