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!

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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.

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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?

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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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