As healthcare shortages continue, workers continue to fight for better conditions.
An estimated 900 service, tech workers and lab technicians of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham plan to initiate a five-day strike on May 12. Strikers cite equitable wages and affordable healthcare as their main concerns.
More than a thousand people attended an informational picket outside of St. Joseph Medical Center on April 29, including hundreds of nurses along with family members and fellow union members from other departments. Standing outside of the hospital, picketers shared frustrations with PeaceHealth, after 13 sessions of contract negotiations over the past three months haven’t resulted in satisfactory amendments.
“It’s really ironic that, in a community that relies on the nurses here, that (the nurses) can’t seem to access care — that they have to go hours to access an in-network provider,” said Justin Gill, president of the Washington State Nurses Association, or WSNA, said at the picket.
Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, Healthcare, service, tech workers and lab technicians said they are striking in the hopes of negotiating contracts that include better wages, stable benefits and enough staffing to ensure safe patient care and minimize caregiver burnout.
Courtney Sly, a trauma registrar at PeaceHealth and member of SEIU, said in an interview that PeaceHealth and SEIU have been in negotiation for eight months, which she considers an abnormally long time. She called PeaceHealth’s response — and lack thereof — to their proposals “shocking.” She said, “They’ve really dug their heels in.”
Sly said turnover has been a huge issue, with staff often moving away to take positions with better-paying jobs. According to her, the hospital lost several respiratory therapists just last week.
Anne Williams, communications specialist for PeaceHealth Northwest Network, wrote in an email, “PeaceHealth respects the rights of our caregivers to participate in these strikes and other lawful activities. However, we are deeply disappointed the unions have chosen to strike. PeaceHealth remains committed to good faith bargaining to reach agreements that are competitive and fair.”
According to Sly, even some proposals that have nothing to do with money have been ignored. PeaceHealth canceled two more bargaining sessions, on May 5 and May 7. “It’s quite shocking… We’re missing out on opportunities because (they) don’t want to meet with us,” Sly said.
Joining the strike to support their fellow unionized PeaceHealth employees is the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, or UAPD, and Sound Physicians. UAPD asserts that eaceHealth leadership is pushing staff to see more patients in less time, even as they continue to deal with understaffing and difficulty retaining staff.
“We’re tired of losing great colleagues to other healthcare systems,” said Graham Meeks, a nurse practitioner, in a UAPD press release. “We’re tired of not being able to see our patients as often and as frequently as necessary for optimal care. We don’t want to go on strike, but we feel this is necessary to force Vancouver executives to notice Whatcom and Skagit patients.”
Williams said that as long as the strike continues, the bargaining will cease.
“Our full attention will turn to ensuring smooth and continuing operations in caring for our community and prioritizing excellent patient care,” she wrote. “We will be glad to reengage and continue bargaining at the conclusion of the work stoppage.”
Not just PeaceHealth
Skagit Regional Health’s most recent Registered Nurses Collective Bargaining Agreement — which has not yet been finalized — amends the previous deal that nurses must complete a full year or 1,664 hours — whichever comes last — to achieve a wage increase. The proposed bargain states that this year, increases will occur at the anniversary of the start date, regardless of hours worked.
This came after members of the WSNA who work for SRH composed a letter to the SRH board of directors during contract and benefit negotiations in June 2024, calling into question several aspects of the nonprofit organization’s financial decisions.
Among these was the organization’s resistance to allowing part-time workers — who make up approximately half of SRH nurses and are majority women, working part-time to take care of children or other family members — to receive annual wage increases like full-time nurses.
The letter states, “Skagit’s insistence on adhering to this inequitable pay system contributes to nurse turnover and costly on-boarding, but so far SRH has adopted a myopic, penny-wise-pound-foolish approach.”
Health and safety concerns
According to the World Health Organization, at least a quarter of health care workers reported anxiety, depression and burnout symptoms between January 2020 and April 2022, during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The president of the Washington State Medical Association, Nariman Heshmati, said in a 2023 work group report that “We must leverage our resources to support physicians in providing day-to-day care with fewer barriers … Physicians have to be able to spend more time caring for patients and less time caring for an inefficient system.”
According to a separate 2023 study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, in the two years following the start of the pandemic, approximately 100,000 registered nurses left the workforce, citing stress, retirement or burnout. An additional 610,388 revealed that they plan to leave by 2027, reporting the same causes.
‘ … you don’t know if anyone’s coming
because we don’t have enough staff ….’
Tom Geiger, spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers 3000, said that Skagit Regional Health has endured chronic understaffing since even before the pandemic due to noncompetitive wages.
Another issue SEIU members asked PeaceHealth to address, according to Sly, was staff security. When a patient begins acting out and a staff member doesn’t feel safe, they call a “code gray” to alert security to their location so they can get the situation under control.
However, Sly said security is short-staffed — especially on night shift, where they see the most of this activity. She described it as “scary” that when someone calls a code gray, “you don’t know if anyone’s coming because we don’t have enough staff.” In proposals, she said they were hoping for increased security, a union for security staff and metal scanners. She said it’s “one of the proposals they won’t even discuss.”
Barriers to hiring
Another issue faced by many specialties is that the demand is simply too high to expect positions to be filled at an ideal rate.
Stella Trepiccione, a clinical speech language-pathologist at Mount Baker Care Center in Bellingham, described the facility she works at as “one of the best — if not the best — places (she’s) worked at.” Still, she said her department, along with their occupational therapy department, would ideally have at least one additional staff member each to assist with their caseloads.
While speech language-pathologists are one of the most in-demand positions in healthcare — and projected to grow a startling 18% between 2023-2033, according to data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — qualified applicants are the most scarce. Statistics on occupational therapists are similar, with a projected growth rate of 11% within the same period.
Jessica Nye, the community health services manager for San Juan County, said that their location and population affect the kind of healthcare they have on the islands. In San Juan County, there are no OBGYN or birthing services available on the islands, with the exception of the San Juan Island Midwifery in Friday Harbor, meaning many expecting parents have to travel off-island for each prenatal and perinatal appointment as well as their delivery. Nye said, “It comes down to volume… It takes a certain amount of people to have certain specialists in a community.”
A lack of affordable housing can be a major deterrent to people considering accepting contracts in some areas. In San Juan County especially, workers often must choose between struggling to find affordable housing on the island where they work and commuting by ferry each day.
According to housing statistics for Bellingham — the most populated city of the three counties — the rate of migration is 83%, meaning more people are moving to the city than out of it. The number of new residential units permitted reached its lowest point in a decade in 2023, although it has improved a little since then.
In counties with lower populations, healthcare facilities may not be able to compete with pay offered in larger areas. This can create another negative feedback loop, since the need for coverage often causes healthcare facilities to turn to travel nurses for coverage.
Travel workers
Katie Vella, a traveling nurse currently working in Indiana, has taken shifts all across the country, though her home base is in Washington. She explained that, in her experience, the main reason for hiring travel nurses is to deal with short staffing. The need for coverage can have many causes, such as facilities being chronically short-staffed or expanding or opening a new wing and needing immediate coverage.
‘Nursing’s one of those jobs where, no matter
where you go, everyone needs help.’
A benefit, she added, is that travel nurses are already trained in a certain clinical skill, meaning they can fill that need without the training a new-hire would require — which often takes several months.
Vella said, “nursing’s one of those jobs where, no matter where you go, everyone needs help.” She explained that, as a travel nurse, she gets to pick her contracts. These typically start at around 13 weeks and can be extended up to a year, depending on need and location.
Although travel nurses don’t always receive higher pay than other nurses — in fact, sometimes they’re paid less — they cost more to facilities, which must pay for their travel expenses.
Williams said, “PeaceHealth is taking extraordinary steps to recruit new talent. We are actively recruiting caregivers for well-paying jobs and partnering to train others. At the same time, PeaceHealth has worked hard to address care affordability by reducing reliance on high-cost temporary workers.”
According to Sly, a “vast majority” of workers at PeaceHealth are travel workers, which she said is a massive difference from just eight years ago when there were rarely more than a few.
— By Rebecca Sutch
Also read in Salish Current:
• “A new approach to maternal health in America,” Oct. 7, 2024
• “What do you know about public hospital districts?” July 2, 2023
• “Wanted: nurses — and nursing educators — as shortage persists,” Sept. 29, 2022
• “Local unionization efforts aim to raise wages, lower burnout,” Aug. 12, 2022