The Presidents of SEIU 1199NW, UFCW 3000, and WSNA speak to the huge victory for patients, communities and nurses with the new Safe Staffing Law, the need for nurses and communities to hold hospital administrations accountable to the new law, and a much deserved celebration for this victory. Watch the Video:
The Presidents of SEIU 1199NW, UFCW 3000, and WSNA
Our bill to address safe staffing in hospitals, ESSB 5236, was passed by the House earlier this month — the last step in a lengthy legislative process that we, in coalition with SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, UFCW 3000, and the Washington State Nurses Association, helped move forward with our actions, stories, and willingness to use our collective voice to ensure safer care in our hospitals. When we fight, we win!
The bill landed on Gov. Inslee’s desk to be signed into law on April 20, 2023. As of today, our bill is law.
What’s next?
Seattle: Seattle Labor Temple, 5030 1st Ave. S
Spokane: UFCW 3000 Office, 2805 N. Market St.
Tri-Cities: SEIU 1199NW Office, 7525 W. Deschutes Pl Ste 2 Kennewick, WA 99336
Tacoma: Shiloh Baptist Church, 1211 S I St.
Mt. Vernon: UFCW 3000 Office, 1510 N 18th St.
Everett: Snohomish County Labor Temple, 2810 Lombard Ave.
Olympia: Washington State Labor Council, 906 Columbia St. SW (2nd floor)
We’ll distribute an implementation timeline, provide resources, and share information to help us enforce the new staffing law and ensure accountability.
“I’m very glad to see the nursing staff representatives on our staffing committees expanded to include CNAs and LPNs alongside RNs. I know ensuring strict enforcement of a new staffing law is going to take some work, but I’m excited to get started learning how we can use it to keep our patients safer, our hospitals accountable, and our jobs more sustainable.”
Strengthen accountability to hospital staffing plans set by staffing committees.
Eliminate CEO veto power over those plans.
Expand staffing committees to include LPNs, CNAs, and other direct patient care staff in addition to RNs.
Reduce hospitals’ ability to pack staffing committees with people who impede plans.
Create uniform reporting forms, which will mean that patients and healthcare workers will easily understand how many staff should be present.
Require hospitals to report noncompliance to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I).
Allow DOH to issue corrective action plans that could require minimum staffing standards and fines.
Expand meal and rest break laws to include all frontline staff.
Close loopholes to make mandatory overtime laws fully enforceable.
Allow L&I to issue escalating penalties for missed breaks.
Funds the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to conduct a study of existing staffing plans.
Today the House passed the healthcare staffing bill (ESSB 5236), the final legislative hurdle in a long process, to begin addressing the ongoing hospital staffing crisis this legislative session. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk.
We would not have gotten this bill through the Legislature without the countless members like you who sent in selfies, signed in “pro” on bills, contacted your legislators, testified in hearings, and so much more. The voices of healthcare workers at the bedside pushed the State Senate to go farther down the path toward safe staffing than ever before.
ESSB 5236 reflects a compromise between SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, UFCW 3000, the Washington State Nurses Association and the Washington State Hospital Association. The final compromise will strengthen accountability to staffing plans and allow for corrective action by state agencies if necessary up to and including enforcing safe staffing standards on hospitals. It represents a meaningful step toward safe staffing.
The final bill:
Strengthens accountability to hospital staffing plans. If hospitals fall below 80 percent compliance with their staffing plans, they are required to report noncompliance to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). Noncompliant hospitals will be assigned a corrective action plan by L&I and DOH, which may include elements like safe staffing standards set by L&I that the hospital will have to follow.
Expands meal and rest break laws to include all frontline staff, closes loopholes to make mandatory overtime laws fully enforceable, and ensures hospitals follow the law. If there are more than 20 percent of breaks missed in a month, L&I will issue escalating penalties.
Funds the WA State Institute for Public Policy to conduct a study of existing staffing plans to establish what’s actually happening in WA hospitals and compare them to elsewhere. This study would set a baseline understanding of the staffing crisis in WA by a credible, nonpartisan source, and provide a benchmark against California and professional association standards for staffing levels, which is critical for continued work to ensure safe staffing in Washington.
After the Governor signs the bill, we will turn to implementation and enforcement. We will be reaching out about plans to educate members – particularly members of staffing committees – on the elements of the bill.
All UFCW 3000 members are invited to join us for a live Telephone Town Hall on Monday March 20th at 6:30 PM. We will be discussing efforts to reform our International Union, make it more of a worker-led democratic union, and to get more value from the money our local union sends each month. We should have more of a say in our union and we need more power to negotiate stronger contracts and win more rights, higher pay and improved safety at work.
You should receive a call on Monday around 6:30 pm. Simply answer the phone and you will join the call. If for some reason you miss the call or do not get a call, you can call in from any phone:
You should have received your PSP payout! In the National Alliance Agreement, we won language which guarantees $200 per goal met at TARGET, even when the KP financial gate is not met. In Washington, the PSP payout is between $400 and $600 depending on your 2022 attendance and is broken down like this:
Affordability
Everyone receives $200
Workplace Violence Prevention Training
Everyone receives $200
Quality (DREs)
Goal not met $0
Service (QR codes)
Goal not met $0
Attendance
If you personally met target for unprotected ill time used in 2022, you received $200
To reach the PSP goal for attendance and receive a $200 payout for 2022, you must have achieved either Target or Stretch:
Threshold: 2.0% or less of unprotected time taken off $0
Target: 1.4% or less of unprotected time taken off
Stretch: 1.16% of unprotected ill time taken
If you reach one of these goals or a number in between, you received one $200 payout for attendance. You will not receive more than one $200 payout if you reach Target or Stretch.
Note: Unprotected ill time is defined as time off not approved by Management such as an unscheduled absence. Protected sick leave under a federal, state, city, or contractual leave of absence such as PSL, WPFML, Matrix, FMLA, Leave of Absence, etc. is protected.
“Unscheduled time off is considered excessive if it occurs more than 6 times during a year, or more than 3% of the employees work time.”
(See Article 12.02.2 for Pharmacy and Article 13.02 for Pro-Tech/Optical of the UFCW 3000—Kaiser Permanente contract.)
These bonuses are a result of union members mobilizing and speaking out. Advocacy won the $500 bonus here is Washington State! But this is not enough. We need a comprehensive, long term solution including wage adjustments, training programs and conditions that cause people to quit. While a one-time bonus is a positive step, we know the cure is going to require much more, and we won’t rest until we achieve a full solution for our patients and union members.
For additional information, please reach out to Contract Specialist, Penny Manker @ 425-306-1357 OR Union Rep Lauren Van Wormer (effective Tuesday, March 7) @ 206-436-6584.
We’re writing with an update on the progress of Senate Bill 5236 – our bill to create safe staffing standards in Washington.
Last Friday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to pass an amended version of SB 5236. It is worth celebrating that this bill is continuing to move forward through the legislative process, even as we know the fight for a strong version with meaningful enforcement provisions is ongoing. At this point, a few senators have prevented us from implementing statewide safe staffing standards across the board as initially proposed. Despite this, the committee did amend SB 5236 to strengthen staffing committees and improve enforcement, setting a solid foundation for us to keep fighting for safe staffing standards. We’re confident this agreement gets us closer to enforceable staffing standards by establishing penalties for hospitals that continue to violate staffing plans, and under the amended bill, if hospitals continue those violations, they would be subject to Labor and Industries’ strict enforcement of safe staffing standards.
There is still time for hospital lobbyists to try to weaken the bill, but that means there is also time for us to make our voices heard. Contacting your senator, and encouraging your coworkers, family, friends, and community to do so as well, is the main way we can keep up the pressure. Share your experiences with short-staffing and what it means for your patients. Let them know what the current lack of accountability around staffing plans looks like day to day. Make it clear that their constituents are paying attention and demanding action.
Our next hurdle will be to get SB 5236 passed off the Senate floor by March 8th. We thank Sen. June Robinson for being our legislative champion on behalf of Washington’s healthcare workers and Sen. Christine Rolfes, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, for keeping the focus on this bill until it was voted out of committee.
Your work and advocacy up to this point have been invaluable. We encourage you to continue reaching out to your Legislators to urge them to pass SB 5236.
After working so hard and being so understaffed for years, and after LabCorp refused to renegotiate your wages to recruit and retain staff, the time is drawing near to address your needs through the bargaining process. In a few months, your colleagues will sit across the table (or virtually) from management to negotiate your wages, staffing, healthcare, and so much more for the next three years.
BUT! Great contracts are not won at the bargaining table, they are won in your workplaces!
Join your colleagues for a virtual meeting on Sunday, February 19 at 10 AM or 6:30 PM to strategize your plan to win substantial wage increases and improvements to your benefits and working conditions. We’ll discuss what must be done if you are to win the crucial improvements you need and deserve. To really build enough power to move management at the negotiating table, your coworkers should join you as well. If you’re unable to attend Sunday’s meeting, please call Christie to set up a one-on-one, or a group to learn what must be done. We can meet in person, virtually, or even over the phone!
Join your coworkers for a virtual meeting!
Sunday, February 19
10:00 AM
6:30 PM
Contact your Union Rep Christie Harris for call-in details. Details will be also emailed out.
Finally, your mandatory overtime grievance is headed to Federal Arbitration this month!
The contract says that they cannot mandate overtime for chronic short-staffing reasons yet LabCorp continues to violate this right that you worked so hard for! We’ll keep you posted.
All questions are welcomed and encouraged and you’ll receive a half-month’s credit toward your dues. Join us!
Does management tell you that it’s the union’s fault that they cannot give you a raise? Nothing could be further from the truth! Ask for a merit raise and show them this language from your contract,
“9.4.1 Additional merit increases may be given at the discretion of the Employer, in addition to, but not in replacement of, 9.4 above.”
Here’s the link to your entire contract, call your rep if you’d like a hard copy.
Did you know that you’re allowed to talk about your union and your working conditions on the clock? This is federal law and is also protected by the federal courts! As long as your speech doesn’t interfere with your work, you may talk about wages, staffing, building power, your upcoming contract negotiations and so much more. Call Christie if you have any questions.
Call Christie Harris anytime you have a question, a concern, or if you simply want to learn more about your union and your rights and benefits!
Your Union Rep, Christie Harris:
(206) 436-6606 (landline)
I’m always happy to talk!
On January 26, 2023, the Senate Labor Committee heard Senate Bill 5259, a bill we’ve worked on to address the impacts of retail theft on our members and our workplaces. UFCW 3000 members have been raising the safety and financial issues around retail theft for years now, and members in grocery and retail said that tackling retail theft and ensuring workplace safety were top legislative priorities for 2023. SB 5259 would prohibit discipline of a grocery worker who engages during a situation of retail theft, and UFCW 3000 members and staff testified in support during the committee hearing.
“I wasn’t given any kind of training on what the manager wanted me to do to ‘intervene’ here, but I felt like I needed to follow his instructions or I would lose my job. In fact, in this case, following his instructions got me fired because when I did in fact intervene here, I lost my job for violating company policy by intervening with this woman. Instead of being required to take preventative measures to deter this kind of theft, Fred Meyer punished me for doing what should be their job. I hope we can get the committee support for SB 5259 so this doesn’t happen to another worker in this industry again.” -Suzanne Geffre, Fred Meyer, Richland
“While protecting workers, this legislation will not mitigate all the harms to me and my coworkers from retail theft. We think it will go a long way in ensuring our members feel empowered to make their jobs safer. From 2018 to 2020, the number of assaults reported to the FBI rose 42% overall, but by 63% in grocery stores. And in 2021, more than half of mass shooter incidents were in places of commerce. We need your help! Violent attacks are going to continue regardless of what you do this year to protect our jobs. We know what type of deterrence works, and that is to deliver the best possible customer service to every customer. This legislation will ensure we can do that without fearing we will lose our job and we need you to pass it in 2023.” -Naomi Oligario, Safeway, Port Orchard
“Our daily loss is listed by the time clock in our stores. Between when I started to now, that daily loss number has gone from in the hundreds to now thousands. Daily. It doesn’t seem fair to me that the theft the grocery companies do nothing to deter affects my department profit numbers, for which I’m then held accountable. At my Safeway we are told that we have to have our counters full and ready for customers by a set time every day, but it’s hard to do that when a customer walks in and fills up a cart with meat and walks out without paying. I know that as a manager in my Seafood department, if I could simply walk up to a customer who was doing this, to ask them if they need help, it would be a deterrence. Our stores need to have effective deterrence because workers in our stores like me are held to account for the store’s failure to deter theft.” -Anna McAllister, Safeway, Kent
Sarah Cherin, Executive Vice President of UFCW 3000, speaks to the committee about members’ experiences with retail theft.
Debbie Gath, with Teamsters Local 38, talks about her work as a Union Rep helping members facing discipline or termination.
After supporting our communities through three years of a pandemic, staffing in our hospitals is worse than ever. We know we don’t have a shortage of healthcare workers; we have a shortage of healthcare workers who are willing to work in these conditions. That’s why we’re calling on the legislature to pass a comprehensive law that puts patient safety and healthcare workers first.
Senate Bill 5236 calling for safe staffing standards was introduced in the Washington State legislature and had its first public hearing Jan. 17. The bill includes:
Safe staffing standards including maximum patient assignments
Adequate enforcement of staffing laws
Expanded protections for overtime and breaks
Protecting our rights to staffing committees and expanding them to be inclusive of the entire care team
Email your legislator. As constituents and union members, we know that direct communication with our elected representatives is one of the most effective ways to advocate for change. Send a message using our online advocacy tool:
“Less than one year ago I provided testimony on HB 1868 hoping this state would pass a law ensuring nurses and patients had safe healthcare environments – instead, staffing got worse. Not because this state isn’t educating enough nurses. The shortage is not nurses, the shortage is safe work environments. No amount of money can keep nurses repeatedly experiencing moral injury and burnout.” - Kelli Johnson, RN, Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett
“I have served on the staffing committee at our hospital for many years and have chaired that committee for the last year and a half. I am here to tell you it is infuriating to sit in committee month after month, year after year and see how our staffing guidelines are breached every single day on many units a day leaving nurses in untenable, dangerous and heartbreaking situations.” - Nonie Kingma, RN, Sacred Heart Hospital, Spokane
“Implementing safe staffing standards in every Washington hospital is the one thing that will make patient care safe again and keep healthcare workers like me at the bedside. Patient care is devastated, and that’s devastating for those of us at the bedside. Where I work, folks’ fingers are on the send button to resign. They are ready to move to outpatient care, retire — frankly, anything else. This bill makes working in a hospital safe again. This bill is what will keep and bring healthcare workers back to the beside.” - Melissa Swetland Leaptrot, RN, St. Anne Hospital, Burien
Watch UFCW 3000 member Kelli Johnson, Providence Everett ER nurse, speak to state senators about the importance of safe staffing standards.
This week UFCW 3000 members and our allies at SEIU Healthcare 1199NW and WSNA, along with community supporters, made our presence known at the State Capitol during a state senate hearing on Safe Staffing bill SB 5236. Health care workers testified during the committee hearing and met with lawmakers to ensure they know how desperate the staffing crisis is—and how important it is to pass statewide safe staffing standards now.
“Less than one year ago I provided testimony on House Bill 1868 hoping the state would pass a law ensuring nurses and patients have a safe healthcare environment. Instead, staffing got worse,” said UFCW 3000 member and Providence Everett emergency RN Kelli Johnson to the senate committee. “The shortage is not nurses, the shortage is safe work environments. No amount of money can keep nurses repeatedly experiencing moral injury and burnout, two of the top three reasons nurses leave the profession.”
We are not alone: Firefighters, mental health advocates, rare disease patient advocates, and others also testified in support. And more than 2,000 people signed in “Pro” in support of the bill, more than twice as many as those opposed!
This week the coalition of healthcare workers from UFCW 3000, WSNA, and SEIU 1199NW, relaunched the WA Safe + Healthy campaign and Senate Bill 5236 to pass safe staffing standards to address the worsening hospital staffing crisis.
Please join healthcare workers from across the state for our first hearing in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee scheduled for:
Tuesday, January 17 @ 10:30AM
Washington State Capitol - Senate Hearing Rm 1
John A. Cherberg Building and Virtual
(John A. Cherberg Building to the Capitol map link HERE)
Even if you are unable to testify in committee due to time constraints or distance, there are several other ways for members of the Senate Labor Committee hear from you about how unsafe staffing levels have impacted you, your patients, colleagues, and communities across the state.
The more healthcare workers and community our elected leaders hear from, the more likely they are to pass this critical legislation! Next week we will be wearing stickers in the worksites to show our support for safe staffing. Your Union Representatives will be in touch and getting those to workplace leaders for distribution.
Questions, or to get involved in helping lead the fight for safe staffing, please reach out to your Union Representative.
We haven’t given up the fight for safer staffing. Last legislative session, we made momentous progress in elevating the staffing recruitment and retention crisis to lawmakers, media, and the public. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to secure safe staffing standards in 2022. But we know the crisis hasn’t gotten better – if anything, it’s gotten worse.
We’re gearing up now to take the fight back to Olympia and do what it takes to make sure healthcare workers have the staffing they need to provide excellent care. We look forward to sharing more policy specifics soon. But we need you to keep fighting, too.
“Nurses and other healthcare workers continue to burn out under the stress of caring for more and more patients. Across the state, we’re seeing long backups in emergency rooms and patients waiting in the ER until there’s a bed and a nurse to take care of them. We’re seeing nurses and other healthcare workers run ragged trying to keep up. That’s why we can’t let up on our fight for safe staffing. We need state-level solutions, which is why we’re headed back to the legislature to win safe staffing in 2023.” -Jacob Garcia, Med-Surg Registered Nurse, Astria Sunnyside
“We need to do something now to retain our experienced staff and attract new caregivers to the field. We have lost too many co-workers to burnout already. It’s painful to see just how much short staffing is affecting patient care. I’m encouraging my co-workers and all fellow healthcare workers to speak up so state lawmakers can hear directly from those of us on the front lines. Solving this problem is going to require lawmakers to act in the interest of patients and ensure our communities have access to quality healthcare with safer staffing.” -Iliana Ramirez, Medical Assistant, Lourdes Medical Center
“Safe staffing cannot wait. We are going back to the legislature more united than ever for safe staffing standards for all healthcare workers. We’re asking everyone for their support, and to be ready to talk to their legislators, friends, and family. We are moving forward, now join us!” -Ade Adeyemo, Certified Nursing Assistant, UW Medicine - Northwest Hospital
We are proud to share that Fred Meyer has recognized our union at North Bellingham in the General Merchandise side, and we are joining our coworkers as members of UFCW 3000!
This took many years of work, and it’s worth celebrating our big win. Union protections include a legal contract with guaranteed wages and benefits, and union workers also have job protections and rights on the job that non-union workers don’t have. We will also have access to high-quality and affordable healthcare through our CBA, and a pension that the company will be making contributions to at 2.8% of salary.
Winning our right to unionize is just the beginning. Now it’s time to take the next steps:
Learning about our rights
Learning our contract
Recruiting workplace leaders to become our trained Shop Stewards
Getting to know our UFCW 3000 Union Representative
Some of our most important rights on the job are around meetings with management, known as “Weingarten rights.”
You have the right to union representation if you are called to a meeting with management that could lead to discipline.
Follow these guidelines:
The employee must make a clear request for union representation either before or during the interview. (Managers do not have to inform employees of their rights.)
Management cannot retaliate for requesting representation.
Management must delay questioning until the union steward arrives.
It is an unfair labor practice for management to deny an employee’s request for a steward and continue with interrogation. In this case, an employee can refuse to answer management’s questions.
If you or a coworker needs any help regarding an investigatory meeting with management, are facing any discipline or corrective action, or believe our contract is being violated, contact the UFCW 3000 Member Resource Center at 1-866-210-3000.
Our UFCW 3000 Union Representative is Aisha Womack. Aisha represents workers at multiple work locations and employers, and can help address workplace issues, organize for change in the workplace, support contract bargaining and enforcement, and more. Contact Aisha at 360-419-4681.
To sign up for further training with our union on things like contract enforcement, Weingarten rights and meetings, grievance procedures, and safety, contact our Union Rep Aisha at 360-419-4681, or call the union’s education director Marc Auerbach at 206-436-6519.
The staffing problem at Providence Everett continues to worsen. This past month it culminated with a sentinel event in the emergency department. This event, along with others can be avoided with proper staffing!
Time and time again in nurse staffing committee, nurses have made staffing suggestions to the Hospital administration. Instead of taking into consideration our recommendations, they have ignored us, cancelled additional meetings needed to review the many CSIs submitted, and are now planning to restructure the Staffing Steering Committees which will favor the Hospital.
Enough is enough! Providence needs to be held accountable and answer our questions about staffing. We have submitted a detailed information request to the Hospital to better understand the factors which lead to the sentinel event in the emergency department.
Providence has failed to resolve our staffing problems and is failing the community and patients.
We call on Providence Everett to be transparent and collaborate with nurses in staffing committee! Our patients deserve better! We need safe staffing conditions now!
We will be following up with next actions in the next two weeks. In the meantime, our most effective tool is to file a CSI form or file a DOH complaint. We highly encourage you to use these avenues to report staffing issues.
We are excited to announce that the deadline for applications to the KP Contract Specialist position has been extended, and is still open to our Union members! If you are interested in this position, please apply no later than 5pm October 7, 2022.
The Contract Specialist is responsible for contract interpretation and education on both the Local Contracts and National Agreement, as well as building Shop Steward capacity and partnership in the LMP program.
This position is paid by Kaiser Permanente but is directly supervised by the Union. The Contract Specialist will work directly with the current UFCW 3000 Staff Representative as well as Employee and Labor Relations Consultants and LMP Manager.
As our previous Contract Specialist, Christina Delgado, has been instrumental in the development of many Steward Training Programs as well as answering day to day contract questions. Her contributions have been greatly appreciated and she will be missed!
Conifer has given wage increases to employees at St Michael Medical Center, St. Francis Hospital and others while intentionally leaving out St. Joseph and St. Elizabeth.
UFCW Local 3000 has formally requested wage increases for members at St. Joseph and St. Elizabeth to help with recruitment and retention as well as to counter the rising cost of living.
Management quickly responded to our request by saying they were not interested in giving us a mid-cycle wage increase. Management specifically said that they believe our “compensation is appropriate and additional market adjustments will not be provided nor are we required to take such action.”
We are all worth retaining and deserve better wages! We have coworkers who continue to leave to go elsewhere because they can get better somewhere else. If management wants to retain and recruit others, they need to respect us by paying us what they have given others and what we deserve.
“To get the same raise from Conifer that were given to other workers would show that the company values us as employees. It would lessen the stress of high costs we are dealing with because of many years of raises that have not even kept up with inflation. The pandemic has been a really difficult time for all healthcare workers and acknowledging our hard work and the contributions made to our community and our hospital would be REALLY meaningful. Conifer is treating union employees differently from our counterparts. We feel that St. Joseph and St. Elizabeth facilities are being discriminated against by not being offered the same raises that are given to other Conifer employees. Management has even told hospital employees that we can’t be given the raises since we are members of a union. Union employees need to be treated fairly by Conifer! We have stood with Conifer during the worst of times during the Covid crisis and we need Conifer to show that we are valued by extending us the same raises as our fellow employees.”
— Diane Demorest, Patient Account Rep at Conifer St. Elizabeth Hospital
“Conifer not giving us the 10% Market Increase is over a $2 an hour lost income for me. Equaling over $5,000 a year! If they value us as employees they need to pay us market rates. Not punish us because we are union. Many other companies out there paying more and that’s why we have such a high turn over in staff. The company is losing a lot of money onboarding and training people only to lose a lot of them in less than a month. Rather than paying more to retain their staff.”
— Marne Lint, Patient Access at St. Joseph Medical Center.
Sign a petition calling management to do the right thing and give us the wages we deserve!
Bremerton HC: 8:30am - 10:30am
Port Angeles HC: 12:30pm - 2:30pm
Olympia HC: 10:30am - 12:30pm
Puyallup HC: 2pm - 4pm
Federal Way HC: 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Tacoma HC: 9am - 12pm
White Center HC: 1pm - 3pm
Marysville HC: 9:30am - 11:30am
Everett HC: 1pm - 3pm
Lynnwood HC: 3:30 - 5:30pm
Bellevue HC: 10:00am - 12pm
Central District: 1:30pm - 4pm
Northgate HC: 9am - 11am
University District HC: 12:30pm - 3:30pm
Tacoma HC: 8:30am - 11am
Central District HC: 12:30pm - 3:30pm
Good Afternoon Planned Parenthood Union Members!
I’m happy to announce we’ll be visiting all the health center locations later this week, Wednesday through Friday, July 27-29. The schedule is above. Fellow UFCW Union Reps will be joining me to spend a few hours in each clinic. We are here to listen, so I hope you’ll take some time from your busy workday to say hello and voice any workplace concerns.
If you are unavailable, please contact me at 206-436-6570 to raise any concerns. We know staffing and retention are major concerns to you and your union is working on grand scheme solutions, so your concerns are important to us. Finally, thank you for providing such crucial care to our patients—you are far more appreciated than you realize.
Take care, all.
—Charlie King, UFCW 3000 Union Rep
UFCW 3000’s 5th Annual Member Discount Day is Monday, August 8! Come join your fellow Union members and our families for a day of rides, water, lunch, and fun at Silverwood Theme Park & Boulder Bash Water Park!
Tickets include: all day admission to Silverwood Theme Park and Boulder Bash Water Park, Monday, August 8, from 11 AM to CLOSE with unlimited rides, all you can eat lunch, and all you can drink Pepsi-wristband.
Tickets are on sale now and will remain on sale until Thursday, 7/28 at 5 PM or until sold out. Click here to purchase tickets.
Children ages 3-7 and those over 65 years old: $17. Folks ages 8 - 65: $30. Tickets are first come, first serve. Tickets and wristbands will be held at will call day of. No refunds post purchase. This event is for UFCW 3000 members and their families only; Union work location will be required.
If you have any questions, please contact Annie Puskarcik at (206) 436-6572 or apuskarcik@ufcw3000.org.
Click HERE for the KP Alliance Job Description >>
We have been so fortunate to have worked with Ralph Stumbo in his capacity of Alliance Partnership Representative over the last three years.
Ralph has brought a caring spirit, and an extensive understanding of Group Health and Kaiser Permanente processes to this position.
He assisted thousands of members in understanding the intent of the language in the contract,
served on both the Local Bargaining Committee and the National Bargaining Committee for many contracts,
served in PSP negotiations,
provided training and done many presentations,
helped launch UBT’s throughout the region,
performed Path to Performance evaluations,
helped implement various initiatives in the National Agreement,
and continues to serve on countless committees.
Ralph has fulfilled his commitment of three years as APR and will be moving back into his former position as Respiratory Therapist and Pulmonary Function Technician (dual credentials).
The Alliance Partnership Representative position is now open for all UFCW 3000 KP members. See above for the link to the job description and exciting opportunity to work closely with the National Alliance and KPWA developing and training UBT’s.
Applications must be received no later than end of day Sunday, June 12.
On March 22, workers at Providence RadiantCare overwhelmingly approved their first contract! Workers will be receiving anywhere between a 2% to 20% wage increase on their April 15 paychecks. This contract is also the first to achieve placement onto a wage scale dependent on years of service versus a minimum percentage increase, which resulted in higher wage increases compared to other newly organized units.
On top of guaranteed wage increases, the bargaining team was able to win workplace protections like the grievance process, lay-off procedure, and successorship language in case of a sale.
Providence RadiantCare workers are joining about 50,000 UFCW Local 3000 members in Washington State and parts of Oregon and Idaho. We encourage you to learn about your union rights, union trainings, upcoming activities/events, and union benefits by going onto our website, www.ufcw3000.org.
If you have any contract questions or workplace issues, please reach out to your union representative, Erin McCoy emccoy@ufcw21.org or 206-436-6598 (landline).
Congratulations Providence RadiantCare UFCW members! Welcome to Local 3000!
We are the Union. The members of UFCW 3000 are over 50,000 members working in grocery, retail, health care, meat packing, cannabis, & other industries across Washington state, north-east Oregon, and northern Idaho. UFCW 3000 is a chartered member of UFCW International with over 1.4 million workers in North America.
To build a powerful Union that fights for economic, political and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.
