BCW Outstanding Employer Award

2008 - City of Tacoma

The City of Tacoma has nearly 3,000 employees and is increasingly known as a family-friendly workplace. In 2007, the city established a lactation room in the Municipal Building after the Human Rights Commission requested support be provided to help mothers continue breastfeeding when returning to work after childbirth.  The move was prompted by a case that came before the Commission wherein a new mother claimed she was denied by her employer the opportunity to express her breastmilk at work.  The room is equipped with a couch and love seat, a baby changing station, sink and microwave, storage for personal pumps, a small refrigerator and three partitioned private areas for pumping. The city's progressive lactation policy is shared with all new employees during orientation.  Human Resources provide pregnant employees with information to encourage and promote breastfeeding when inquiring about maternity leave.  The city of Tacoma established this program with support from the Tacoma Human Rights Commission and the Pierce County Breastfeeding Alliance.    

2007 - Blue Bird, Inc.

A video showing how Blue Bird, Inc. supports their breastfeeding employees, the majority of whom are migrant farm workers packing fruit on assembly lines can be found on YouTube.

Blue Bird, Inc. is the oldest co-operative fruit packing company in Central Washington and employs approximately 1,600 seasonal employees in their packing houses, orchards and offices. Since 2005, they have provided two private rooms and electric breastpumps for their breastfeeding employees. Each room has a table and chair, refrigerator, cabinet (for pump supplies) and educational materials.

With funding from a Washington Department of Health WIC Capacity Grant, the Columbia Valley Community Health (CVCH) WIC program and the Breastfeeding Coalition of Wenatchee encouraged the creation of pumping rooms at local fruit harvesting companies.

Blue Bird, Inc. was nominated for the Outstanding Employer Award because they enthusiastically offer support to breastfeeding employees at their headquarters in Peshastin, and at the Wenatchee plant. Women learn about the rooms by word of mouth and via large signs in break rooms. If necessary, employees can flex their hours to ensure adequate pumping time. All employees, including upper management have received information and training about working and breastfeeding.

2006 - University of Washington

The University of Washington (Seattle Campus) employs 30,000 faculty and staff and educates more than 43,000 students. UW employees and students receive exceptional lactation support, enabling hundreds of mothers to continue breastfeeding when returning to work/school.

Faculty and staff on parental leave receive detailed information on how to continue breastfeeding after returning to work/school. Lactation classes are offered in small group settings, and employees and students receive an in-person orientation to the seven lactation rooms located on the Seattle campus. Each room is equipped with one or more hospital-grade electric breast pumps, comfortable seating, and easy access to a sink and/or refrigeration. Students, faculty and staff have access to lactation consultants for questions about breastfeeding. As an employer and educational institution, the UW recognizes breastfeeding as a vital part of the health and development of children and their families. The breastfeeding support provided by the UW makes it a stellar model for other colleges and universities.

2005 - Russell Investment Group

Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual, and is headquartered in Tacoma. Russell is a global leader in multi-manager investing and provides investment products and services in more than 39 countries. Russell is also known as a family-friendly workplace. In 2003, Russell sought assistance from the Pierce County Breastfeeding Alliance to establish "Mothers Rooms" after several breastfeeding employees asked for support to continue breastfeeding while working. These rooms now number 3, and there are plans to build an additional room that will accommodate 2 mothers at one time. The rooms provide a comfortable space for breastfeeding employees to pump in private as needed during the workday. Russell provides employees with information about returning to work and breastfeeding, and resources for breastfeeding support.

Russell knows all about investing and Russell understands that supporting breastfeeding employees offers a considerable return by lowering healthcare costs, enhancing productivity, improving employee satisfaction, increasing retention and improving image. Supporting breastfeeding employees reduces staff turnover, and reduces sick time and personal leave because breastfed infants are more resistant to illness. In 2003, when Russell listened to the request for support from their breastfeeding employees, they knew the financial investment to create "Mothers Rooms" was a significant and supportive investment in the future health and well-being of Russell employees and their children.

2004 - Fort Lewis & Madigan Army Medical Center

The 2004 Outstanding Employer Award was presented to Fort Lewis & Madigan Army Medical Center.  In 2001, Fort Lewis initiated Command Policy Statement 21 entitled: "Policy on Support for Soldiers with Nursing Infants." This policy statement is a first for the military. It addresses how commanders can support breastfeeding soldiers by being sensitive to their needs, allowing for time to pump and deferring field duty or other training that might separate the soldier from their infant for the first 4 months. When a breastfeeding soldier is involved in field training and separated from her infant for 1-2 weeks, a daily mail courier is used to transport expressed breastmilk to main headquarters for pick-up by the infants' caregiver.

Madigan Army Medical Center, located at Ft. Lewis, is the first Army Medical Center to develop a position for a full time Lactation Consultant. This job description has been accepted and formalized for use within the Department of Defense Civilian Personnel Office. As an employer, Madigan provides employees the use of on-site breastpumps and a freezer for breastmilk storage. All employees, even civilians are able to access the lactation consultant. Madigan's weekly breastfeeding support group that has had over 1500 nursing couplets participate. As a result, Madigan has a 95% breastfeeding initiation rate.

"Ft. Lewis and Madigan Army Medical Center have come a long way towards mother-baby-friendly policies and programs, but we have a long way to go.   Change may at times seem slow within the military system but as positive changes occur, it is community recognition, such as this award, that encourages further change to meet the needs of today's families." Col Paul Whittaker, (responsible for initiating policy development at Ft. Lewis).  

2002 - Davita, Inc

In 2002, DaVita, Inc., a leading provider of dialysis services in the United States, was named the BCW Outstanding Employer. DaVita treats patients through a network of dialysis facilities in 32 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, they provide acute dialysis services in 285 hospitals. DaVita's Corporate Business Office is located in Tacoma, WA with over 650 employees or "teammates."

DaVita was nominated for the Outstanding Employer Award by the Pierce County Breastfeeding Alliance. The Alliance sent DaVita the BCW's "Working & Breastfeeding: It's Worth It!" packet and a cover letter soon after the Washington Breastfeeding law was passed in 2001. The letter explained the law and encouraged DaVita to support their breastfeeding employees. Not long after that the Alliance received a phone call from DaVita asking for their guidance.

DaVita developed a policy supporting breastfeeding employees and set up a room for employees to pump. The coordinator of the Pierce County Breastfeeding Alliance, MerrieLynn Rice helped present the award. Ms. Lynn LaDoe, People Services Manager for the Tacoma business office, accepted the award on behalf of DaVita and read a statement from Gary Biel, Vice President and Controller of DaVita. In addition to sharing that he was breastfed for the first year of his life and that he is the father of three breastfed children, he stated,

"I feel (this award) is both an honor and an embarrassment. An embarrassment to business leaders generally because we are being recognized for something that should be commonplace in companies throughout Pierce County and Washington state.

"I would like to thank the Breastfeeding Alliance of Pierce County for bringing this important issue to our attention, and I offer our support to you to help encourage other businesses to follow our lead. Any employer who does not make simple accommodations for this important and basic need is simply foolish."

2001 - Pay Plus Benefits

The 2001 Outstanding Employer Award was presented to Pay Plus Benefits. John Heaton, is CEO of Pay Plus Benefits in Kennewick, Pay Plus benefits is a small business employing 16 people. John realized many years ago that the focus and productivity of employees can be compromised by off-site, unreliable childcare, a situation that also causes considerable stress. In response, Pay Plus Benefits opened the Small Wonders Child Care center in May 1999. The center is on-site and partially subsidized by the company. This situation makes it easy for employees to continue nursing after returning to work.

At the time of opening there were approximately five children in the center. Every employee with children has utilized the center for their child care needs. The center has a maximum capacity of eight children and is often completely full. Some employees utilized the center during the time they were breastfeeding their babies helping them to breastfeed longer.

Pay Plus Benefits is convinced that the child care center makes a significant contribution to morale and productivity. In addition, it has provided a strong competitive edge in attracting young mothers in a tight job market.

One of the company's top priorities is to ensure that all employees and their families have access to the resources needed to maintain a healthy and happy work and family life. They feel this makes good business sense. 

2000 - Agilent Technologies

The 2000 BCW Outstanding Employer Award was nominated by Alicia Burget who is a member of the Spokane County breastfeeding Coalition and a lactation consultant in that area. Agilent Technologies is a global diversified technology company. Since 1996 Agilent has provided breastfeeding employees with a private room equipped with an electric breastpump, breastpump kits and various supplies. They contract with a local Lactation Consultant (Alicia) when needed. The room is 4 feet by 6 feet and contains a chair, refrigerator, bulletin board with lactation information, artwork and magazines. The room is attached to the women's locker and shower room. It is clearly marked and has a sliding sign designating "Occupied or Vacant." Agilent also provides a Medela "Pump in Style" for women to check out when traveling. In addition to the seven or so employees who use the room, wives of Agilent Technologies employees have access to the Lactation Consultant. 

1999 - Weyerhaeuser

On August 3, 1999 at the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Conference in Seattle, First Lady, Mona Lee Locke and Dr. Nancy Danoff (Breastfeeding Coalition of Washington Western Co-Chair) presented the first BCW Outstanding Employer Award to Weyerhaeuser in recognition of their lactation support for employees. Weyerhaeuser has seven "New Moms" rooms in its Federal Way and Tacoma offices. These rooms are equipped with company-supplied, top-of the-line electric breastpumps, refrigerators, cots and chairs. Loaner pumps are available as well. Weyerhaeuser also provides educational material on breastfeeding, lactation consultant services and information on their intranet entitled "Resources for Nursing Mothers at Weyerhaeuser." The award was presented during the luncheon and was attended by 450 people.