YAKIMA, Wash.- If you were driving down Tieton Drive near the hospital on Wednesday, you likely saw a crowd of people with signs outside the hospital. Those people were healthcare workers and employees of the MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital advocating for a stronger union contract.
It’s been almost a year since negotiations between the hospital and the SEIU Healthcare 1199NW union started. Still, the union is asking the facility to fix the staffing shortage and recruitment and retention standards.
Nurses say they are being overworked because MultiCare doesn’t have enough employees to grant vacation time or adequate recovery between shifts.
“We’re short staffed a lot of the time, in fact, probably more so than not,” says Trish Bowman, a Registered Nurse at the hospital for over 40 years. She says nurses are struggling to find a balance of loving their job and paying the bills.
“$15.74,” says Deshawn Oursland, a phlebotomist at MultiCare Yakima. “That’s minimum wage and that’s current what people are making here.”
The mix of low pay and hard hours have driven some nurses who live in the Yakima Valley to work outside of the region. Multiple nurses at the picketing event report having at least considered a nursing job away from MultiCare Yakima.
“If you can travel somewhere, within reasonable distance and get better things, then you’re going to leave to go to that,” says Registered Nurse Amber Cox.
1199NW says the contract negotiations have not led to any ill will aimed towards the hospital. The union’s President, Jane Hopkins, says many were excited to join the MultiCare family, and the negotiations so far have not caused irreparable damage.
“You can turn it around,” says Hopkins. “We can get back on track to where we thought we were gonna be, so that you can come and do the things that we knew you were gonna do, so that we can look after the Yakima community, so that we can look after patients, so that they can get the best care possible.”
The MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital did not respond to our request for comment.
SEIU Healthcare 1199NW says the hospital has until November 21 to propose a new contract.
