This morning, nurses at Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center and their allies picketed outside the hospital to demand a fair contract that puts patients over profits.
Stand with nurses! Sign their petition today and demand hospital management put people over profits!
Virginia Mason nurses, represented by the Washington State Nurses Association, have been fighting for a new contract for months. Their previous contract expired a month ago, but management is still dragging its heels at the bargaining table.
The main sticking point? Patient safety.
Under current staffing levels, nurses are stretched so thin that they are skipping bathroom and meal breaks to make sure that patient care does not suffer. That has to stop.
- Nurses can take all of their legally required breaks without worrying about their patients’ safety
- Units are staffed according to the staffing plan the hospital developed with nurses, not productivity metrics that come from corporate HQ
- Virginia Mason commits to following Washington’s staffing law all day, on every unit, throughout every shift.
Patient safety should never be a battle, yet Virginia Mason nurses are fighting to provide the right care for their patients. According to their bargaining team, “To us nurses, it seems productivity metrics are prioritized above all else. These shortsighted decisions put our patients and staff directly at risk.” [1]
In solidarity,
The Labor Force
[1] https://www.thestand.org/2026/10/virginia-mason-nurses-to-picket