Capital Medical Center Technical Service - Bargaining Continues

“We’re disappointed that MultiCare has decided to focus on takeaways when we should be focusing on solutions to staff our hospital.”

Our Bargaining Team: Adam Swigart, Julie Hinchcliff, Maureen Ciglia 

Your bargaining team met with management again on October 20 and 25 as we continue to negotiate your successor contract.

After conducting a comprehensive market analysis on wages, we finally presented our initial economic proposal to management. Prior to presenting, we had to warn the employer that our proposal to increase wages may be shocking, but that is only because Capitol Medical Center’s wages are shockingly behind other hospitals in the region. 

This problem has dramatically worsened recently as neighboring hospitals have been forced to significantly increase wages to compete in a tight labor market and to keep up with the historic rate of inflation. We told management that we hope MultiCare will be willing to take the necessary actions to correct our low wages that our past employers have failed, or more accurately refused, to take. Your bargaining team is committed to fighting for wage increases that will help relieve our staffing issues and recognize the skyrocketing cost of living. 

Unfortunately, the employer then made a proposal to replace our Paid Time Off (PTO) program with the standard PTO program used throughout MultiCare, which would negatively impact many at Capitol Medical Center. We are not surprised by this proposal, in fact we expected it, but we are severely disappointed that MultiCare has elected to propose a takeaway when we should be focusing on more important issues such as staffing our hospital. We’re also frustrated that they made this proposal when they still haven’t resolved our outstanding issues with PTO after MultiCare took over the hospital. 

Your bargaining team will meet with management again on Monday November 1 and we hope management will have a response to our wage proposal.