New Job with Kaiser - Negotiating Pay?!

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Hi!

Here are the details:

Im an RN with just over 1 ye experience in med-surg inpatient hospital setting. 
I recently was offered a position with an outpatient Kaiser clinic. 
I was offered a generous sign on bonus, however the pay still seems a bit low. I know clinics get paid less than inpatient.
I’ll be working in Seattle (very expensive city)

Kaiser WA is unionized.

I have my BSN

But anyways, to the point! Do I have the ability to negotiate for more money per hour? Or do I have to accept what they offer bc that is what is set by the union? Is there any wiggle room for more pay?

 

thank you for your help!

My thought would be, that in the setting of a union contract, you are going to have little to no ability to negotiate your salary

Best wishes.

11 minutes ago, chare said:

My thought would be, that in the setting of a union contract, you are going to have little to no ability to negotiate your salary

Best wishes.

Thank you for the response!  I guess I’m new to union contacts - so I’m wondering why is it that we don’t have the ability to negotiate with union contacts?

Do you have a copy of the union contract? In some cases you can negotiate if there is a salary range. At my last union job, I was able to get above the base pay management quoted because the contract stated that I could ask for experience pay and certification pay. They were not automatically given- I had to ask for them, which I thought didn't make sense because it was in the contract. If I didn't have someone on the inside to give me a copy, I would have agreed to what management told me was the standard starting pay. What do I know?

At another union job, I was able to get almost 20k above the stated starting salary because they allowed me to use the salary I made from my last job as a starting point. I negotiated from there using my experience and their desperation.

I think the union contract establishes a base pay, but you can negotiate up to the top pay.

Im not a union expert- these were just my experiences?

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