We met with Evergreen management on Tuesday, October 1st, for our third bargaining session. We brought additional proposals to the table. Some highlights include:

• A wage proposal (Article 8) that seeks to bring you to the wages of similar area hospitals and eliminate “ghost steps,” accounting for the fact that most of those hospitals’ nurse wages reflect wage increases that took effect earlier this year (WSNA’s researcher presented data to Evergreen on these “wage comps)
• Increases in shift diff. BSN/MSN and weekend premiums, and new premiums for mentor and triage nurses, as well as a bilingual premium (also Article 8)
• A proposal (on Article 4.9) that would provide year-for-year (rather than hours worked) credit for WSNA nurses
• A proposal on Article 11 - Sick Leave that addresses concerns articulated by you regarding Evergreen’s punitive “dependability” policy
• An increase in continuing education dollars, in Article 12.7
• An expansion of bereavement leave hours and to include reproductive loss in this leave (Article 12.10)

We engaged in a robust conversation regarding Evergreen’s sick leave policies. We discussed our concerns about the dependability policy, which can cause nurses to suffer adverse consequences after calling out for legitimate sick leave needs.

 If you'd like to view the current version of our contract, you can find it here.

We are steadfast in our commitment to reach an agreement that allows Evergreen to retain and recruit nurses. We have five additional bargaining sessions scheduled, on October 9 and 25, and November 11, 19, and 20.

Got Transparency?

Join us at our next negotiation session on Wednesday, October 9, to get an update straight from the bargaining team, pick up your WSNA T-shirt, and observe the negotiation process as we pass some of our final proposals to management. Note that it can be difficult to know exactly when we will meet with management but if that doesn’t happen right away,

We would love to catch you up on everything that has happened so far. Please be sure that you are on an official break or off of the clock while participating as an observer. Please reach out to Crystal Doll at CDoll@wsna.org to RSVP.