Nurses picket outside Tacoma medical center to highlight staffing, safety issues
Nurses at Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center, part of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, took to the picket lines Wednesday after failing to make progress in bargaining talks after 10 sessions in two months.
The nurses seek improved staffing levels, higher pay and safer conditions to and from parking lots, among other issues.
In a statement, Washington State Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, said, “In recent incidents, nurses have been assaulted at work, harassed on their way to and from the parking lots, and been the victims of vehicle break-ins. St. Joe’s refuses to take common-sense steps that would help protect the nurses who serve our community.”
Pointing to profits made by the hospital’s parent company, CommonSpirit, WSNA contends that nurses at St. Joseph are among the lowest paid among Tacoma-area hospitals, citing a 13.8 percent wage gap between St. Joseph and Multicare Auburn.
“While hospitals like Tacoma General are offering five-figure retention bonuses, signing bonuses and recruitment bonuses, St. Joe’s has rejected WSNA’s proposals for incentives that could help retain qualified nurses,” WSNA noted in a list of key bargaining issues provided to The News Tribune.
Last week, Tacoma-based MultiCare announced a round of incentives for its health care employees.
In response, Cary Evans, vice president of communications & government affairs for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, told The News Tribune in an emailed statement:
“We value our registered nurses and are committed to providing a safe work environment with competitive wages and benefits that attract and retain the very best. As we face an unprecedented health care staffing shortage, we are also offering incentive pay, bonuses, and training opportunities for our staff.”
Evans added: “Our proposal to the union is fair and comparable to the pay and benefits of other employees throughout our hospital system and the Puget Sound area.”
Yunna Flenord, a charge nurse at St. Joseph and member of the WSNA bargaining team, told The News Tribune in a phone interview Wednesday that “everything we’ve literally asked for has been shot down.”
“We did meet with them yesterday and they came back with a higher offer, but nothing that meets the demands that we’re asking for,” she added.
Flenord works in St. Joseph critical care ICU. She said staffing shortages have gotten worse as more people leave for other jobs, drop out because of burnout or retire. Departures from the recent COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline of Oct. 18 didn’t have much effect given the staff shortages already in place, Flenord said.
She described a recent shift where about 20 nurses were working when 26 were needed, not enough, she said, for all the patients there.
“I had to call management overnight, and we had to figure something out. It was awful,” she said.
She said bonuses paid for working what are deemed “critically short” shifts face a slow turnaround.
“I worked on Labor Day on a critically short shift, and I just got paid for it, probably my last paycheck. I had to fight for it and keep going to HR trying to get my money.”
Flenord noted how the staffing shortages have affected the community, with delays in care and canceled surgeries.
“This is not a nursing problem. It is a community problem,” Flenord said. “If we don’t have a bed available for you, you’re literally sitting in the ER for hours.”
She said there have been multiple car break-ins, thefts of catalytic converters and more.
“It’s kind of frustrating when you’re working 12-hour shifts,” she said. “So you’re worried every time you come into work, you don’t know if you will get assaulted .... or come back to your car broken in or what.”
The health care system in response said: “St. Joseph Medical Center has worked diligently on workplace safety and we are committed to continue to focus on improvement, including opening the skybridge for more secure parking lot access at night. We also proposed additional meetings with nurse representatives to continue discussion on parking and safety and to identify additional improvements.
“It will take collaboration with staff, management and our community partners to address these issues.”
Talks between the two sides are expected to continue this month.
“We respect the collective bargaining process and as we move forward with ongoing negotiations, patients at St. Joseph Medical Center can expect to receive uninterrupted, quality care,” Evans said Wednesday.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 1:03 PM.
