Hundreds of community members wearing Washington State Nurses Association shirts filled the sidewalks outside of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham on Tuesday, April 29. PeaceHealth employees and community members in their blue WSNA wear came together to host informational pickets.
The WSNA pickets at the intersection of Squalicum Parkway and Ellis Street, starting at 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., were held to inform the public of their ongoing bargaining with PeaceHealth to reach a fair contract. Labor counsel Kelly Skahan said the WSNA is working towards a contract that improves pay equity and healthcare coverage.
Over the last three months, the WSNA has spent over 1,300 hours in bargaining with PeaceHealth, said bargaining team member and decade-long PeaceHealth nurse Kristin Malmo.
Speaking at the event, Malmo said that, beginning in 2025, PeaceHealth rolled out cuts to employee health benefits, reduced areas of coverage and increased out-of-pocket expenses by thousands of dollars.
The Family Care Network of primary care doctors, once covered by PeaceHealth insurance, has removed 100 local care providers from coverage and has replaced them with six primary care doctors.
“There are too few PeaceHealth specialty doctors in our area, and the cost to see non-PeaceHealth specialists has more than doubled,” Malmo said. “We are seeing nurses travel far distances, sometimes all the way to Vancouver, Washington ... just to get appointments with covered specialists.”
PeaceHealth employees have seen cost increases within the hospital as well. The cost of receiving anesthesia, which is essential for many medical procedures, has increased anywhere from 20% to 200%, according to Malmo.
Concerns over pay and healthcare are reportedly driving incoming healthcare professionals away from the hospital. Robin Cully, a night-shift nurse and co-chair of the WSNA local board at St. Joseph’s, said that nursing students without familial or financial ties to Bellingham are turning to higher-paying hospitals out of town for work.
“I heard two Whatcom nursing students talking in the hallway the other night at the end of their clinical shift as I was doing my rounds, and one of them said, ‘Why would I work in Bellingham if I could move to Vancouver and make $10 an hour more, or move to Longview and make $12?,’” Cully said.
PeaceHealth St. Joseph is currently the largest local medical institution in Bellingham and has been the top employer in Whatcom County since 2014, according to Western Washington University’s Center for Economic and Business Research. The research center said that Whatcom County’s population has grown 2.2% between April 2020 and July 2023 — if the trend continues, demand on the hospital will increase.
Hannah Stone, a Bellingham City Council member who attended the 6 a.m. picket, said that access to quality and affordable healthcare is imperative as Bellingham’s population continues to grow, but it must be ensured that these healthcare workers have living wages and good working conditions.
Bellingham City Council said it recognized the impact PeaceHealth has on the local community. It issued four letters to the WSNA, PeaceHealth, the Union of American Physicians and Dentists and the Service Employees International Union, imploring the groups to engage in bargaining that is “predicated on a high-quality healthcare workforce and a safe workplace.”
On May 1, the Union of American Physicians and Dentists and the Service Employees International Union announced their intentions to go on a five-day strike starting May 15, according to Cascadia Daily News. Since PeaceHealth nurses are not under contract as of March 31, they are able to join the picket line, though the WSNA has yet to comment on if they will be officially joining the strike.
PeaceHealth’s Northwest network communication specialist Anne Williams said in an email that the company's focus remains on providing safe, high-quality and compassionate care for the community, and that PeaceHealth looks forward to returning to the bargaining table.
“We understand how important our contract is to our caregivers,” said Williams. “And we look forward to reengaging in constructive, good faith bargaining to reach an agreement that is fair, competitive and sustainable for our medical center and our community.”
Above all the concerns and upset over wages and benefits, many nurses said they rallied behind a unifying cause: love of their community, patients and work. Many of the nurses left the pickets early to attend shifts at the hospital, and multiple signs centered on concerns for patients’ well-being if nurses are unable to get healthcare.
“I love what I do. I love the people I do it with,” said Anson Chamblin, a nurse at PeaceHealth. “We break our backs to care for people. We’re not asking for gold-plated anything. We’re asking for a basic, acceptable healthcare plan.”
As noon approached, speakers at the event ranged from Bellingham City Council’s Jace Cotton, Hollie Huthman and Skip Williams to singer-songwriter and post-anesthesia nurse Brian Martens.
Martens wrote a parody of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” which he performed during the second picket, commenting on the difficult tasks nurses undertake and the monopoly many said they feel PeaceHealth holds over healthcare workers.
This performance book-ended the public speaking portion. The last informational picket ended roughly 30 minutes later at 1 p.m.
The WSNA bargaining team has held 13 bargaining sessions with PeaceHealth management to reach a fair contract, Skahan said. Negotiations between the union and hospital management are planned to restart on May 16 after a change in PeaceHealth’s negotiator.
“The nurses here have been here some time. A lot of us could go to other places. We don't want to. We want to stay here. We want to take care of the community,” Cully said. “We want this community to be taken care of, and we know that won’t happen if we don't get a fair contract.”
Jae Ranney (they/them) is a second-year journalism major and city news reporter for The Front this quarter, having previously worked in campus news. When they're not chasing a lede or hounding you for a quote, they enjoy playing guitar, banjo, and drumming in a few local bands. You can reach them at jaeranney.thefront@gmail.com.
Tori Lehman (she/her) is a city news reporter for The Front this quarter. Tori is in her third year at Western majoring in environmental journalism and minoring in women, gender, and sexuality studies. She enjoys immersing herself in nature and reading essays from authors like Joan Didion and Rayne Fisher-Quann in her spare time. You can reach her at torilehman.thefront@gmail.com.
