Urgent care employees move to strike in Seattle area alleging inadequate rest, PPE

Employees at 20 urgent care clinics across the Puget Sound region have given notice that they plan to strike.

They say their employer, the MultiCare health system, isn’t giving them what they need to keep themselves or their patients safe. They say they have no scheduled breaks, often work 13+-hour days, and have inadequate personal protective equipment, such as N95 masks.

M.C. Nachtigal is a nurse practitioner at MultiCare’s Rainier Valley urgent care clinic.

She said she’s seeing more Covid cases recently — and yet MultiCare has not provided N95 masks for her or her colleagues.

“It gives us more cause for concern if we aren’t getting what’s absolutely recommended and appropriate in terms of PPE and rest breaks,” Nachtigal said.

MultiCare said in a statement that they are “completely confident [their] staff is safe, and ... have no clinical evidence to the contrary.” That is, to date, no employee at an urgent care clinic has contracted Covid at work.

But the CDC recommends N95 masks for all providers working with suspected Covid patients.

As for rest breaks, MultiCare said breaks are “permitted” if employees can find the time, but employees said that time is hard to find if they’re not allowed to block it off.

The strike notice follows a Covid outbreak at MultiCare’s Auburn Medical Center. Eight patients and five staff members there have tested positive for the coronavirus, and one of those patients has died. The Auburn facility is a hospital, not an urgent care site.

“Given that we are currently in discussion with MultiCare about many safety issues, including PPE, it doesn’t surprise us about how MultiCare approaches the business of providing health care,” Nachtigal said.

The strike is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, November 23 and 24.