EVERETT — Providence Regional Medical Center Everett nurses are voting on ratifying their contract renewal this week. A resolution between the union and hospital emerged Feb. 9.
The union says the new agreement contains longevity bonuses for senior nurses, a “competitive wage scale,” an agreement placing nurses with years of experience from other hospitals on a pay scale that acknowledges their years of experience, to use an outside mediator to issue legally binding decisions to address chronic staffing shortages, and about one dozen other bulletpoints.
A request from the Tribune for exact details from UFCW 3000 was not fulfilled by deadline.
In October during that point in time in negotiations, the union detailed that Providence agreed to increase the base pay rate for first-year nurses to $43.91 an hour, up from $37.71 an hour. This pay rate is more comparable to higher-paying hospitals.
A snag in talks last fall came up about establishing a $5-an-hour pay premium to make up for when a unit is under-staffed against standard nurse-patient ratios, which in other words is the union asking to give nurses higher pay during a shorthanded shift to compensate for managing extra patient loads.
The union published that the agreement being voted on for ratification contains a “$500 Monthly Staffing Bonus for Understaffing.”
Their prior three-year contract expired Oct. 30. Negotiations took 10 months and there was a short walkout strike in November.
