Centralia Nurses Picket, Struggle for New Contract

Centralia is a small town in southwestern Washington State steeped in labor history. As a logging and mill town in 1919, workers faced an anti-labor assault known as the Centralia Massacre. Today, UFCW Local 141’s registered nurses at Providence Centralia Hospital (PCH) are facing an assault of a different kind—this time with the Providence Health Care system.

Nurses from Local 141, the United Staff Nurses Union, braved wind, rain, and cold temperatures on Friday, April 4, 2008, as they picketed in front of the hospital. They were protesting the employer’s failure to reach agreement in negotiations that began in April, 2007, to replace a contract that expired last June. Over the course of a full year, Providence could find time for only 13 bargaining dates.

Everyone agreed that morale among nurses is at an all-time low. "We are frustrated with this ongoing, unending, unsettled process," said June Cleaveland, an Intensive Care Unit nurse with 37 years experience, 26 of which are at PCH. Her co-worker, Maggie Sanchez who works in the Recovery Room, agreed: "Who wouldn’t be frustrated? After all, our contract expired last summer."

Inadequate pay is clearly an issue—for PCH as well as the nurses. "We’ve lost 4 full-time nurses in the Intensive Care Unit who have left for better pay," noted LeeAnn Austin, a nurse of 31 years. "Management’s even suggested they might have to close the ICU because they can’t staff it. But they can’t staff it without paying better wages."

Outstanding issues are wages—especially for senior nurses, retroactivity, union security, and the hospital’s restrictive requirements on Family Medical Leave. Providence's negotiator also has made a possibly illegal demand that certain nurses make themselves "available" for four hours into a requested shift for which they would not be paid if not scheduled. In other words, the hospital would have control over these nurses’ time, but not compensate them for it.

The nurses will vote on Tuesday, April 15, to reject the hospital's last, best, and final offer, and authorize a strike

Joni Fuller of Outpatient Surgery, put it best: "Just like my sign says, ‘A Fair Contract.’ That’s all we want."