220 mental health workers at Kitsap Mental Health are proud members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.
SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members have ratified our contract that gives KMHS staff affordable family healthcare and across-the-board wage increases of between 8 and 12%.
Chris Casey-Sanville
Kitsap Mental Health Services, Inpatient RN
The victories in 2007 will make an impact for our clients and community mental health workers across the state, but we aren’t done yet. We need to organize more workers into our union so we will be even stronger in 2009 when we go back to the legislature to continue raising the standards in community mental health.
This contract represents a significant break from the past, where we saw across-the-board wage increases of only 1-3%. The wage increases reflect our victory earlier this year in getting the state Legislature to allocate $24.5 million to improve the wages of community mental health workers across the state.
Every phone call that we made, post card or letter we sent, and personal visit to a politician added to our effort.
Our new contract will help KMHS recruit and retain quality staff in the years ahead.
In our contract settlement however, we are disappointed that two issues did not get resolved: Members wanted KMHS to recognize the Veteran’s Day holiday, but the agency refused to do so. Also, members felt strongly about closing the union membership loophole in the future, but again management refused. We will continue to work hard to win on these issues in the future.
Contract highlights
- 8% Raise over two years for Pay Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 (plus our anniversary raises)
- 12% Raise over two years for Pay Grades 5, 6, and some facilities positions
- Contract expiration of 3/31/09 - common expiration with 1,100 community mental health workers so we can lobby the Legislature in 2009 for additional resources to improve client services and working conditions
- 80 employer-paid Mental Health Advocacy Days -- We will have paid days off to lobby for improvements to community mental health
- A stronger voice on caseload --we can now take their issues to the Labor-Management Committee if they can't find relief with their immediate supervisor
- Affordable individual and family medical coverage -- KMHS pays most of premiums
- Improvements to our benefit plan --lower out-of-pocket costs for emergency room visits and prescription drugs
- Equalized and improved step increases - Everyone will now get 3% step increases (higher seniority members used to get only a 2% step increase)
- Improvements for the Nurses 4-2-2 Schedule - Inpatient nurses now only have to use 40 hours of vacation instead of 48 to take a week of vacation
- Surplus sharing - Every 6 months, if there is a surplus in the KMHS budget, 50% of it will be shared with SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members.
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