We started the day by receiving managements agreement on vacations to guarantee 2 nurses off per shift and to remove the language that allows them to have only 1 person off (provided), this is in addition to the assurance that they will guarantee the use of up to 90% of a nurse's yearly accrued PTO, as requested by the nurse. We feel that when combined with the new vacation scheduling process, this will ensure that our nurses get vacations moving forward. We spent the rest of the morning viewing a presentation on the financial standing of CWH, presented by CH CFO Tom Legal. In the interest of promoting transparency CH presented us with a very through overview of the financial health of CWH, and we countered with our own review of the information and made our pitch to the overall benefit of investing in nurses. I am happy to let everyone know that CWH is in pretty good financial health, although the cost of contracted labor has increased dramatically in the first quarter of 2022. This begins our discussion on economics, a large circus tent that includes the topic on everybody’s mind, wages. We didn’t make wage proposals today, but we both sides have committed to making economic proposal at our next session. We’ll keep you posted as this develops.

In the afternoon we continued our discussion on developing language for the NSC that goes above what the law requires and continues the good practices already in place through the next three years. This includes ensuring that the CFO and CEO attend a minimum number of meetings throughout the year, ensuring that each department has representation, and that nurses who are members of the NSC understand that they can request time off to attend each meeting. We also got strong anti-retaliation language to help ensure nurses feel comfortable coming forward with concerns about staffing or filling out ADOs.

We again addressed the desire for union security and were told that the long-standing policy of CWH is that the CEO and the board would not support a contract that “restricts nurses’ choices”. Our proposal reflects the simple concept that everyone who receives the benefits brought by the union should have to pay their fair share. Unfortunately, this is not a view shared by CWH (although really, where else in the US systems do you get benefits without having to pay for them?) and the fact that both parties must agree for this to be a requirement is just another example of the effective union busting efforts of days gone by. We are required by law to represent every nurse covered under our contract without regard to whether they are dues paying members. Every time we file a grievance, go to arbitration, sit in on an investigatory meeting for someone who is not a member, the wages for our Rep, for the lawyers involved in these actions come from your dues. The fees for our lawyer, for Carmen and Zach, during our ongoing negotiation process come from your dues. And those who have decided that they don’t want to contribute will benefit from all these things, all of the beneficial provisions within the contract, because you, and I and our fellow members decided that we didn’t want a free ride. We don’t think it’s fair, but the reality is that we can’t change it without CH agreeing to let us. We’ll keep working toward this goal and will continue to ask that all new hires be required to join the union.

We finished up the day with bridging seniority. We have added some language stating that restoration of seniority will not kick back in until 90 days after rehiring. This will be a one-year trial that is retroactive for the last 24 months.

Our next session is scheduled for June 13.

In Solidarity, your negotiating team: Sara Bergenholtz, Nick Jackson, Lorna Sebastian, Stefanie Gates, Karla Bourgeois, Paul Stamilio, Paul Molenaar, Amy Yarbrough and Blaine Wuertz

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Carmen Garrison at cgarrison@wsna.org.