EVERETT, Wash. — Some 1,300 nurses here, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000, forced Providence Regional Medical Center, one of Snohomish County’s largest hospitals, back to the bargaining table after an around-the-clock strike Nov. 14-19. The company had refused to negotiate after the workers’ contract expired Oct. 30.
Strikers won wide support, including from firemen; Service Employees International Union; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers; Washington State Nurses Association; Teamsters; and Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation union from nearby Seattle. The nurses are fighting for safe staffing levels and higher pay, among other issues.
Many nurses told the Militant that 12-hour shifts with no break are common. If someone does take a lunch break, it means the remaining nurses have to care for up to two times as many patients. The Seattle Times described how a 41-year-old woman, Cheyenna Costello, the mother of three, had died waiting to be seen in the emergency room, even though her case was marked urgent.
Striking nurses held a rally of a few hundred Nov. 16 in a nearby park. A UFCW representative started the rally by reporting support from patients was tremendous. “I’ve been working here 15 years,” Juan Stout, a member of the local executive board and part of the bargaining team, said. “Nurses used to clamor to work here. They knew they were going to work hard but they would save patients. Providence changed the game.”
Stout said the company had brought in a few hundred traveling nurses at $110 per hour, while continuing to refuse to raise staffing levels and increase pay for nurses already working there.
Local 3000 President Faye Guenther was the final speaker. “This is a righteous fight for community and safety. The patients don’t get to negotiate — only we do,” she said. “The bosses would not bargain with us when we gave them 10-day notice of the strike. This is a ‘nonprofit’ hospital. Enough is enough!”