Kadlec nurses to vote Jan. 25 on new contract

Kadlec Regional Medical Center nurses will decide Jan. 25 whether to approve a new three-year contract.

A tentative pact was reached with management Jan. 13 after months of negotiation.

The ratification vote will happen over three separate sessions throughout the day to accommodate different shifts.

Simple majority approval is needed. The nurse leaders who took part in negotiations recommended ratification.

“The community has been tremendously supportive of the nurses at Kadlec throughout this process,” said Ruth Schubert, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Nurses Association, which represents the nurses. “The bargaining team wants to acknowledge them and thank them for the support. It made a difference.”

In a statement, Kadlec officials said, “We are pleased we’ve been able to reach a tentative agreement with our nurses on a new contract and are hopeful it will be ratified on Monday. We thank members of both teams for coming together and successfully negotiating a new contract.”

About 800 registered nurses at the Richland hospital are covered by the proposed contract.

The old contract expired Nov. 30. Negotiations for a new pact started months before that, with staffing levels, paid time off and sick leave emerging as the main sticking points.

In early December, nurses took an advisory vote on a possible future strike. It won 90 percent approval from the nurses who attended.

The vote didn’t authorize a strike. Association officials described it as a way to gauge how the nurses felt at that point.

Neither Kadlec nor the nurses association released many details about the tentative contract pending the ratification vote.

The association did say the proposed pact includes a wage increase, maintains paid time off and preserves an extended illness bank with no new accrual for current nurses.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Kadlec nurses to vote Jan. 25 on new contract."