Skagit nurses demand equitable pay at hospital board meeting
After 5 months of contract negotiations, the nurses at Skagit Valley Hospital spoke at the Board of Commissioners meeting and delivered a letter demanding fair and equitable pay.
July 11, 2024 • 1 minute, 56 seconds to read
Over 65 Skagit Valley Hospital nurses attended the hospital’s Board of Commissioners meeting on June 28 to demand fair and equitable pay.
Union leaders at the hospital signed a letter to the Board calling attention to the pay inequities, and have now gathered signatures from the majority of Skagit nurses.
Skagit nurses are the lowest paid nurses in the region, making, on average, 11% less than nurses at other area hospitals.
Skagit nurses are members of the Washington State Nurses Association and have been bargaining for a fair contract for five months.
The letter to the Board of Commissioners highlights one of the major inequities that Skagit nurses face: the unfair, outdated, and discriminatory way that nurses are ‘rewarded’ for years served at Skagit: “Unlike other area hospitals such as Providence Everett and PeaceHealth United where nurses move up the wage scale annually, nurses at [Skagit Valley Hospital] only move up the wage table once they work a certain number of hours. Myriad Washington hospitals have moved away from this retrograde payment system that penalizes dedicated part-time nurses and has its roots in historic “pink collar” wage inequities that Skagit’s current system perpetuates. It is primarily women who take part-time positions, often to care for children and other family members.”
Kyla Malean, a per diem nurse who is a member of the Union’s bargaining team, said to the Board of Commissioners in her public comments: “I’ve been a nurse for 18 years and I’m paid at a 9-year scale…We’re playing catch up. Let’s dig out of the hole and do what everyone else has started to do. Done with the antiquated hours thing that probably started in the 1950s.”
She also pointed out that half of the nurses at Skagit are part-time or per diem and, therefore, are in the same situation.
These inequities are having a huge impact on Skagit Valley Hospital’s ability to safely staff the hospital since nurses have the option to leave for better opportunities.
In her comments to the Board of Commissioners, Liz Rainaud, a labor & deliver nurse at Skagit and the Union Chair, said: “Patients are becoming more and more sick, and our nurses are becoming less and less experienced. Harder to recruit, harder to retain, and seriously burned out. All patient care staff are required to do more with less, every shift.”
The current wages are not just an equity issue for the nurses; they result in a patient safety issue for the Skagit community.
Skagit Valley Hospital is the dominant hospital in the Skagit Regional Health Public Hospital District. The District is partially funded by taxpayer money, and its board members are elected by these taxpayers.
The nurses at Skagit sent the letter and attended the board meeting to remind the Board that they are also members of the local community and deserve to be treated fairly by an institution that was created for the community good. Skagit nurses believe it is past time for Skagit Valley Hospital to do the right thing, stop treating them like second-class citizens, and provide equitable wages to the people who make the hospital run.
