Eastern State Nurses Protest Change To Full-Weekend Shifts New Plan Breaks 22-Year Arrangement

Sat., June 13, 1998

By Jonathan Martin jonathanm@spokesman.com

Two years of failed labor negotiations at Eastern State Hospital unraveled publicly Friday as the nurses’ union protested working conditions.

Rally cries - “What do we want? Respect! When do we want it? Now!” - cut the lunchtime lull at the psychiatric hospital’s hilltop campus in Medical Lake.

About 75 nurses and their supporters, including nurses from Western State Hospital, waved placards declaring “Negotiate Not Dictate.”

The dispute stems from a scheduling change hospital management plans to start Aug. 1.

The hospital’s 117 nurses have been guaranteed either Saturday or Sunday off since 1976. A new rotating schedule requires weekend shifts nine months of the year.

Losing weekends off could hurt morale and may cause experienced nurses to leave, leading to declining patient care, union leaders warned at the rally.

Working weekends means geriatric nurse Tammy Yarbrough will rarely play with her children or relax with her husband, she told protesters.

“I love my job, I love my family, but I’m not married to my job!” Yarbrough barked into a bullhorn.

Kasey Stewart, a nurse on the night shift, wonders if she’d find a baby sitter Friday and Saturday nights. “Child care is almost nil on weekend nights,” she said.

The conflict brewed two years as the union negotiated a new contract. It came to a head last month, when the union filed grievances and unfair labor practice complaints.

Many nurses currently volunteer for weekend shifts, which pay extra. Forcing all nurses to work weekends violates the contract, not to mention decency standards, said Rick Polintan, an organizer with the Service Employees International Union.

“We don’t see any sense in the decision,” said Polintan. “Management is unilaterally implementing the decision without bargaining in good faith.”

The Department of Social and Health Services in Olympia told hospital management to make the change.

Jan Gregg, Eastern’s chief executive, said the dispute was about “a past practice” that is no longer efficient.

Currently, only half the nurses work Friday through Monday, she said. Shift changes would allow more work to be done on the weekends.

“We, as management, have realized we are not utilizing the registered nurses as efficiently and prudently as we could,” Gregg said.

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