WhidbeyHealth - Service and Support Negotiations Update

Our Union Bargaining Team met with the Employer on last Thursday, April 4, during which Whidbey Health presented its comprehensive economic proposal. They were able to share the improvement in the financial stability of the organization and their commitment to retention and recruitment of the workforce.

The Employer included proposals for the Professional and Technical units that encompassed wage parity for years of experience and market wage increases at the beginning of the scales to attract new talent.Our team will review their proposals in detail in the next few days as we prepare to counter their proposal with fair wages and other economic items. We believe there is room for improvement and look forward to meeting with them again to negotiate a fair contract in good faith.

Our Bargaining Team: Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator; Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services.

WhidbeyHealth (Service and Support) - Onward to Economics

WhidbeyHealth (Service and Support)
Onward to Economics

Our Bargaining Team: Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator; Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services

On February 22, our Bargaining Team met with Management for our second bargaining session. Both sides of the table presented proposals on multiple non-economic issues and came to tentative agreements on many of these. Throughout the process our Team felt that genuine progress was made.

Some items we are still in discussion about include:

• Lead assignments and how they are determined

• Remote and hybrid work

• Assignment of mandatory overtime

In our next session on Thursday, April 4, we will be delving into economics, including wages.

As Bargaining Team members, we feel it is important to get involved, and are learning about the process throughout these sessions! We take pride in the fact that we are at the table to represent all of our service and support co-workers.

We encourage our Union siblings to reach out to us to ask if there are questions about the bargaining process, or call Union Rep Celia Ponce-Sanchez @ 360-419 4678.

“We made movement today and feel that Management is listening to our proposals on these issues…” -Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services, Bargaining Team member

“As a first-time Bargaining Team member I regret not getting involved sooner in past contract bargains and am realizing now that knowledge is power!” -Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator, Bargaining Team member

WhidbeyHealth Service and Support - Bargaining Begins!

On Monday, January 22, our Union Bargaining Team met with Management for our first joint session. We presented some non-economic proposals and also continued discussions about other proposals amongst ourselves in our own Union caucus.

In the coming weeks between now and our next joint session, we intend to develop more proposals (both non-economic and economic) in order to prepare to meet with Management again on February 22.

"Management was willing to hear our initial proposals and we had a productive day of negotiations. They also were open to hearing what we had to say about application and security of lead roles. We look forward to our next bargaining session."
— Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services.

Bargaining Team Member:Marilyn Faber, Patient Financial Services; Liz Latiff, Health Unit Coordinator

WhidbeyHealth Professional and Technical Contract Ratified!

On Wednesday, December 13, the WhidbeyHealth collective bargaining agreement for professional and technical workers was ratified, with 98% of those voting “Yes” to approve the tentative agreement!

Our Bargaining Team wishes to congratulate everyone on their contract and thank them for their patience throughout 2023 as we negotiated this agreement.

Ratification bonuses of $1,200 pro-rated by FTE (for instance, a .5 FTE will receive $600) will be on our pay checks this December 22, less standard deductions.

“We are happy to have been able to help facilitate settling this contract. Getting paid for our ‘real’ experience is huge! We’re always looking for co-workers to get involved in this process to help continue to support one another.”- Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead

Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy.

WhidbeyHealth Pro-Tech Contract Votes Scheduled

On November 28 and November 30 our Bargaining Team met again with the Employer to negotiate. While continuing to try to come to an agreement over economic issues, and in particular the wage scale, we were somewhat surprised that the Employer presented us with a Last, Best, and Final offer on all outstanding issues. This means that a vote on what that offer is will be forthcoming on Wednesday, December 13. While we had not expected to have to make this decision quite yet, we are recommending a “Yes” vote to ratify the offer.

Some of the highlights include:

• Wage parity as of April 1, 2024: We secured agreement that WhidbeyHealth would recognize past experience for represented workers at 100%. Many of our more senior employees who may be in the middle of the wage scale would move up the scale if they have more years of experience in their job classification than the step they are on actually represents. This will happen in the coming year if we approve the contract.

• Market adjustments of wage scales: When the mid-cycle wage bargain happened in 2022 the result was that many people further up the scale received increases that put them ahead of what workers earn at competing hospitals. This also resulted in workers on the earlier steps of the wage scale earning less than what workers earn at competing hospitals. Thus, management concentrated on increases at the lower steps in this bargaining cycle.

• Ratification bonuses: If we ratify the contract with a “Yes” vote on Wednesday, December 13, we will receive $1,200 ratification bonuses pro-rated by FTE. For example if you are a .5, you will receive $600.

Contract Votes: Wednesday, December 13

Main Hospital Coupeville HEC Room C: 5:00am—8:00am, 12pm—2:00pm, 5:00pm—8:00

Clinic 1: Oak Harbor-Cabot Break Room: 3:30pm—4:30pm

Clinic 2: Oak Harbor -Goldie Conference Room: 2:30pm—3:00pm

Clinic: Freeland Break Room: 10:00am—10:30am

Clinic: Clinton Break Room: 9:00am—9:30am

We look forward to seeing you at the following times to discuss the offer and vote on it. Members in good standing are eligible to vote.

Our Union Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy

WhidbeyHealth - Bargaining Continues!

Our Union Bargaining Team met with WhidbeyHealth Management on October 12 for a half-day bargaining session. We provided a counter-proposal to Management's last economic proposal. Their counterproposal from the same day was a reiteration of their previous one as far as wages were concerned—they continued to offer a complicated "market-based" set of wage scale adjustments, with altered percentages between steps on the scale, different wage increases for different job classifications, and so forth.

We will be working between now and our next bargaining session on October 26 to analyze their proposal in greater detail so that we may find some way to get to a tentative agreement we can recommend a "YES" vote on.

If you have any questions, please call Union Representative Celia Ponce-Sanchez at (360) 409-0574.

Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy

WhidbeyHealth Medical Center (ProTech) - Bargaining Continues!

WhidbeyHealth Medical Center (ProTech)
Bargaining Continues!

“For the second bargaining session in a row, we saw nothing new from Management. They proposed inconsistent wage scale changes that we find disappointing.” - Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead

Our Union Bargaining Team met with WhidbeyHealth Management on October 3 for a half-day bargaining session. Management provided a counter-proposal to our last economic proposal. While a number of issues are resolved or are closer to being resolved, wage scales continue to be a sticking point.

Our Bargaining Team has been advocating for “across-the-board” percentage wage increases across all steps and job classifications, whereas Management’s proposals have been inconsistent across steps as well as across job classifications. While their proposed market adjustments for wage rates are based on national data, we feel that our specific job market is unique. We also feel that a simple across-the-board raise for everyone would be the fairest idea.

We will continue to work towards a solution both parties can agree to, but are somewhat far apart on what wage scales should look like moving forward.

Our next bargaining session: Thursday, October 12

Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy

If you have any questions, please call Union Rep Celia Ponce-Sanchez @ 360-409 0574.

WhidbeyHealth - Professional & Technical Unit Bargaining Update

On Tuesday, August 8, our union Bargaining Team met with Management hoping to see their response to our comprehensive economic proposal we presented to them on July 26. Management was not prepared with a response on wages and showed an overall lack of willingness to move on other economic issues. When they informed us they would not have a counter proposal on wages that day, we asked for more bargaining dates. Unfortunately, their availability was limited to the end of August or beginning of September, so we will not return to the table until September 8, with a second session scheduled for September 13. 

“We are disappointed that Management came to bargaining unprepared after having nearly two weeks since our last bargaining session to craft a response.” 

— Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead, Whidbey Health 

On Tuesday, August 15, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, our Bargaining Team will be holding a small event at City Beach in Oak Harbor (on the Starbucks side) to update interested members in-person on the bargaining process and ways to get involved and take action! We will have snacks and light refreshments and a drawing for surprise door prizes. Please RSVP with Union Representative Celia Ponce-Sanchez if possible by phone at (360) 409-0574 (but all are welcome!)

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Join us on Tuesday, August 15!

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

City Beach in Oak Harbor (Starbucks side)

1600 S. Beeksma Drive

Oak Harbor, WA 98277

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Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Medical Technical Lead; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy

WhidbeyHealth Pro-Tech & LPN - Positive Progress on Non-Economics

On Wednesday, July 26, our bargaining team got tentative agreements on almost all non-economics—including strong language on non-discrimination, as well as language stating that we only have to give 14 days-notice for resignation instead of 21 days.

We proposed our economic proposals today and expect to hear back with counters from WhidbeyHealth at our next bargaining session on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. We asked for significant across the board increases, language on experience for experience, stronger over-time language, higher differentials and more. We are hopeful that WhidbeyHealth will continue to bargain in good faith and understand that patient safety means we need higher-wages to retain and recruit more staff!

Our Bargaining Team: Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy; Jennifer MaCNeill, Lab

WhidbeyHealth Medical Center - We deserve a fair contract

WhidbeyHealth Medical Center
We deserve a fair contract

We are at the tail end of non-economics but have a few items not tentatively agreed upon. We are still holding strong to 14 days-notice to submit a resignation, but WhidbeyHealth disagrees and wants a fulfillment of 21 days-notice.

We also continued to propose our non-discrimination language that included timelines to ensure that with a complaint, our voices are heard and an investigation is started. WhidbeyHealth has told us they are not interested in responding to non-discrimination language within a 30 day timeline. They told us that their final offer was to have no timeline for a response. All we are asking from WhidbeyHealth is to ensure their employees can find out if their discrimination concerns are being heard and investigated. If there are discrimination issues at work, shouldn’t we be confident that the Employer is looking into those complaints within 30 days?

Show solidarity with our co-workers to let WhidbeyHealth know that WE WANT A FAIR CONTRACT AND WE WANT IT NOW!

We were supposed to be bargaining the week of June 26, but WhidbeyHealth has canceled our bargaining date for that week. We will be passing out stickers to wear the week of the June 26.

WhidbeyHealth Bargaining Team:
Jennifer MacNeill, Lab; Rosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy

WhidbeyHealth - Bargaining Begins

Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, LabRosalie Nguyen, Pharmacy

Bargaining Update—Day One

April 19, 2023

On Wednesday, April 19, our bargaining team met with management for our first joint negotiation session. We provided management with non-economic proposals on a myriad of topics including, part-time employees, shop steward, Job descriptions, Termination Notice, Nondiscrimination, and much more. We were eager to hear the management’s responses to our initial proposals at our next meeting on June 1, where we also planned to propose more improvements to our union contract. Our team will continue to work hard at the table to get us a strong new contract, but we can’t do it alone. We need the support of all of our coworkers behind us if we are going to get real solutions to the big issues we face!

Bargaining Update—Day Two

June 1, 2023

In the second day of bargaining, the Union proposed language on non-economic issues. Once the non-economic issues are resolved, the Union will propose economic proposals. Bargaining this time around with Whidbey Health is moving quicker than before, as they have hired a new lawyer to represent them. This has allowed us to have multiple proposals and counter proposals passed back and forth. We hope this continues through this bargaining process.

On June 1, we got Tentative Agreements on language around:

• Semi-annual seniority roster updates

• Job Postings

• Masterlists/ Status Reports

• New Employee Orientation

• Bulletin Boards

• Political Action Fund Deductions

• Bargaining for new Collective Bargaining Agreement and Unpaid Time Off

Our bargaining team continues to fight for language on non-discrimination including changing your badge and email names, over-time for innovative work schedules, Internal Equity, Definitions, Work week and work day language, Labor management committee, Equity Review, and ensuring you only have to give 14 days notice to resign and more. We are hoping to quickly move to resolve the rest of these articles so we can move onto the economic portion of the bargaining.

Please join us for one of our upcoming Virtual Contract Action Team meetings on Wednesday, June 7 at 1PM and 6PM.

We’ll discuss what we can do in the field to help support our team at the table! RSVP below:

If you have any questions about the bargaining process, please contact Union Rep Celia at (360) 419-4678.

WhidbeyHealth - We Have Reached a Tentative Agreement!

After months of bargaining over wages, we were able to reach an agreement with WhidbeyHealth management. In the Support Services contract and Pro/Tech/LPN contract, it states under the “Classification and Rates of Pay” article that the Union and Management will reopen the “Classification and Rates of Pay” article and bargain over wage increases for 2022. 

On August 2022, Management implemented a wage increase for some classifications while we were in bargaining. We told Management that the increases were not equitable and they needed to provide additional wage increases to the entire unit. 

After much discussion, we were able to win wage increases for all classifications, eliminate all “zero” steps on the wage scales, and increase some premiums. We will be going back to the bargaining table in 2023 to bargain the full contract and continue fighting for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. 

Our next step will be to vote on the contract! We will be holding an online vote on January 5 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for Support Services and January 6 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for Pro/Tech/LPN. You must be union member in good standing by the start of the online vote and have an accurate email on file with UFCW 3000. 

If you do not receive communication from UFCW 3000, please update your contact information.

If you are a non-member and wish to vote, please fill out a membership application.

The agreement is fully recommended by your bargaining team!

Bargaining Team: Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marilyn Faber, Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marty Riley, Elke Rogers

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Support Services Online Contract Vote

Thursday, January 5

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Pro / Tech / LPN Online Contract Vote

Friday, January 6

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

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We will be holding a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, January 3 at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM to review the agreement. 

Vote Meetings 

Tuesday, January 3 

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM • 6:00 PM to 7:00

Contact your Bargaining Team or Union Rep for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.

WhidbeyHealth - Management is Listening!

There was movement in bargaining on September 23. While we did not reach a tentative agreement, Management increased their across-the-board wage proposal and was open to removing the ghost steps / zero steps. WhidbeyHealth confirmed that their wage proposal would be in addition to the wage increases members received on July 31, 2022. 

We counter proposed with a competitive across-the-board increase for all employees, removal of all ghost steps, and increasing certificate premiums to $1. 

In the Support Service and Pro-Tech-LPN contracts, there are about ten steps where an employee does not receive an increase when they move from one step to another. By removing ghost steps, employees are no longer penalized for their loyalty to the Hospital. For example, Step 10 and 11 earn the same wage rate. Under our proposal there would be a step increase between Step 10 and 11 in addition to any other ghost steps. 

We began bargaining for both Service & Support Unit and the Pro-Tech/LPN Unit together to show solidarity as a bargaining unit at the end of July. On September 23, WhidbeyHealth has countered and tabled bargaining for Service & Support until October 1.  We will continue to fight for UNITY and an increased wage for ALL. 

Our next bargaining session will be on October 4 and 19. We will be holding a contract action team meeting to discuss bargaining on September 28.  

Contract Action Team Meeting

Wednesday, October 5 • 11:00 AM

In-Person Casual Get-Together

Thursday, October 6 • 6:00 PM

Organized by WhidbeyHealth stewards

Applebee’s Grill 

31810 State Route 20

Oak Harbor, WA 98277

If you have any questions, please reach out to your bargaining team members or union representative, Celia Ponce-Sanchez.

Our Bargaining Committee:

Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marilyn Faber,  Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marty Riley, Elke Rogers

WhidbeyHealth - Management Rejects Union Proposal

On August 25, we met with WhidbeyHealth management for our second bargaining session regarding the wage reopener for the Pros/Techs/LPNs and Support Services. Management rejected our across-the-board 25% wage increase proposal. They told our team that they believe their targeted market adjustments on July 31 is the first step to helping resolve retention and recruitment issues.

Management used Jefferson Healthcare and Island Hospital wage rates to create their wage scale. We are encouraged that some have received a substantial increase, but others received between a 0% to 2% increase. We need equitable pay for all workers!

We have been below market for several years, in some classifications by more than 20%. Union members organizing pushed Management to announce the July 31 increases. We have been asking Management for several months for competitive pay to resolve our recruitment and retention issues.

We have asked Management to revisit our proposal and expect them to respond with a proposal that addresses our concerns. Our next bargaining session is on September 23 and have requested to meet sooner. We have also asked Management to send their proposal prior to the meeting to expedite the bargaining process.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your bargaining team members or union representative, Celia Ponce-Sanchez.

Your bargaining committee,

Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marilyn Faber, Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marty Riley, Elke Rogers

WhidbeyHealth - WhidbeyHealth Responds to Our Proposal!

Prior to June, we requested bargaining dates from Management to start wage reopener negotiations. Finally in July, Management provided us with a bargaining date and a wage proposal which Management sent to all employees. The wage scale that Management released was a proposal and needs to be approved and voted on by YOU, UFCW 3000 members! Management has said this proposal is a “done deal,” but that is NOT THE CASE!

Management has the right under the contract (Article 18) to give everyone a wage increase, but they cannot implement a new wage scale. For example, they can implement a percentage wage increase for all current employees in all classifications while we are in negotiations and keep the wage scale as is.

On July 28 the Pro/Tech/LPN and Support Services bargaining team met with the WhidbeyHealth management bargaining team. We reviewed Management’s wage proposal and there are several classifications whose pay rates are below area hospitals. Management proposed higher wage increases for some classifications anything between .5% to 2.5% for other classifications. Given this, we proposed a 25% wage scale increase for both Pro/Tech/LPN and Support Services, along with the removal of all ghost/zero steps and replacing those steps with a 2.5% step increment. Management did not meaningfully respond to our proposal and gave us a second bargaining date for late August.

We are disappointed with Management’s lack of response and delay to the bargaining process! We have request sooner bargaining dates. It is important that we show Management that we need higher pay and they should not delay implementing wage increases!

We will be holding a contract action team meeting on Thursday, August 4, 1:00pm and 6:00pm over Zoom and Tuesday, August 9 at 6:00pm (tentatively in the Education conference room at WhidbeyHealth) where we will be talking about actions and discussing bargaining.

If you have questions, please contact your union representative Celia Ponce-Sanchez cponcesanchez@ufcw3000.org 360-419-4678 or your bargaining committee.

Your bargaining committee,

Jennifer MacNeill, Rosalie Nguyen, Qiana Johnson, Marty Riley, Gwendolyn Cole, Lisa Olds, Marilyn Faber, Elke Rogers

Join the Contract Action Team Meeting!

Thursday, August 4

1:00 PM • 6:00 PM

WhidbeyHealth - Management Proposes Wage Increases

On Friday, July 1, WhidbeyHealth Management made a wage proposal via email. The proposal includes a .05% wage increase for all Pro-Tech-LPN members, some market adjustments, a 2.5% step increment between Base to Step 10, adding three steps to the wage scale (new final step will be Step 28), and a 5% step increment between Step 10 and Step 28. 

As for Support Services members, Management is proposing market adjustments on some classifications, a 2.5% step increment between Base to Step 10, and a 5% step increment between Step 10 and Step 28. While some of the new pay rates bring classifications close to market standards, other classifications are still below area hospitals, like Skagit Regional Health. 

Additionally Management has told us that since they are proposing a “sizable” wage proposal, they are holding to their position to no longer cover the Washington State Paid Family Medical Leave premium, which is .06% of your gross wages per year. 

We need members’ input prior to making a counter proposal, so we have asked Management to bargain with us prior to July 31. Please join us on July 12 to further discuss Management’s proposal. If you have questions please contact your union representative, Celia Ponce-Sanchez. 

Join Us to Discuss the Proposal via Zoom!

Tuesday, July 12

RSVP 11:00 AM

RSVP 5:00 PM

WhidbeyHealth - Let's hold WhidbeyHealth accountable!

On June 28, we met with WhidbeyHealth Management regarding the elimination of Employer-paid WA Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) premiums. As of June 5, the Employer stopped paying the entirety of the 0.06% annual premium of gross wages. After three years of paying for the entirety of the WA PFML premium, WhidbeyHealth has decided to stop covering the 0.06% premium! They claim workers will not feel the affect of the premium deductions. But in 2021, the Pro/Tech/LPN and Support Service units only received a 1.0% wage increase. By having employees pay for the WA PFML premium, they are taking away from our wages and essentially our families.

When we asked Management if they could afford the premiums, they told us they could. Management believes that stopping coverage of the premiums will help rectify the mismanagement of hospital finances. It is unfair to take away this benefit from workers. Workers should not bear the costs of their mismanagement of funds.

We expect Management to do the right thing and continue covering WA PFML premiums through the life of the contract!

We also asked Management for bargaining dates for the Pro/Tech/LPN wage reopener. With the increase cost of housing, food, and gas and high turnover, we need to fight for competitive wage increases.

Join our virtual meetings where we will discuss wage proposal ideas and plan workplace actions
Tuesday, July 12 @ 11PM
Register in advance

Tuesday, July 12 @ 5PM
Register in advance

Contact a Bargaining Team member or your Union Rep for the registration details. Details will also be emailed to you

WhidbeyHealth - All Workers Deserve a Wage Increase and Retention Bonus

A few weeks ago WhidbeyHealth proposed increasing current employees below $18/hour to $18/hour and changing the base rate for all classifications to $18/hour. Your bargaining committee reviewed the proposal and identified that this would result in wage compression. For example, a Housekeeper II at Step 8 would be earning the same as a Housekeeper II at Step 0-7.

As a committee, we decided that we could agree to increasing current employees to $18/hour, but we must begin to bargain over wages for the rest of the bargaining unit immediately to address the wage compression. Per the CBAs, we are supposed to go back to the bargaining table in June 2022 for the Pro/Tech/LPN unit and October 2022 for the Service/Support unit. Our request to Whidbey is that we go to the bargaining table in January 2022 for both units.

Additionally, we believe it is divisive and unfair that they are offering non-union employees a retention bonus and not union employees. Given that, we are proposing that all bargaining unit employees receive a retention bonus! We are also asking WhidbeyHealth to provide sign-on bonuses to new hires in order to recruit new staff and reject that the base rates for new hires increase to $18/hour. Increasing the base rates will create a greater wage compression for current employees. We believe the better approach is for WhidbeyHealth to provide sign-on bonuses. Until this date, WhidbeyHealth has not approached us with any sign-on bonuses for any union classifications.

WhidbeyHealth needs to acknowledge the work that current employees have done in the past year and a half during a pandemic and must respect us as workers! We need wage increases for ALL and bonuses which will retain and recruit staff!

WhidbeyHealth - Review Your September 17 Paycheck! Wage Increases Dispersed!

On September 16, UFCW 21 and WhidbeyHealth were finally able to come to an agreement around language and wage scale discrepancies. Throughout this entire process, our position has been that WhidbeyHealth should have implemented the wage increases per our tentative agreement which the Support Service unit and Pro/Tech/LPN unit ratified on June 23. We are disappointed with WhidbeyHealth’s delay tactics and will continue holding them accountable to timelines in future negotiations!

Please review your September 17 paycheck which should show retroactive pay and wage increases of:

• 1% hourly wage increase for Pro/Tech/LPN from February 7, 2020 until June 30, 2021 and 1.5% hourly wage increase effective July 1, 2021

• 1% hourly wage increase for Support Services from June 7, 2020 until June 30, 2021 and 1.5% hourly wage increase effective July 1, 2021

We are now working on posting the contracts online and will have hard copies available. If you wish to have a hard copy and can distribute copies to your department, please reach out to your union rep Celia Ponce-Sanchez. 

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to your union rep or the Member Resource Center 206-436-6570.

WhidbeyHealth - Shame on WhidbeyHealth!

We have been corresponding with WhidbeyHealth regarding the July 1, 2021 1.5% wage increase and 2020 retroactive pay. Our position is that the wage increases need to be implemented per the ratified contract agreement, but WhidbeyHealth’s position is that they will not provide wage increases until all language and wage scale discrepancies are resolved. For this reason, we filed a grievance and unfair labor practice with PERC. We are extremely disappointed with WhidbeyHealth’s position and believe that members need their wage increases and retroactive pay now! Members have been working understaffed through an entire pandemic and they deserve WhidbeyHealth to respect the ratified contract agreement! 

We are following up daily with management and expect to have a payout date by Monday, September 6.

Additionally, we are bargaining with WhidbeyHealth on a COVID-19 vaccine mandate letter of understanding. While we cannot change the Governor’s COVID-19 mandate, we can negotiate over the changes to workplace conditions. An example of a term we are negotiating: members who decline the vaccine will keep their seniority until the mandate is lifted or the caregiver receives the COVID-19 vaccine.