Bargaining Update – Session 10
Posted Jan 30, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
You may recall that at our previous session (Jan. 14), the Hospital passed a comprehensive proposal. Our team had the chance to fully review and analyze that document. This past Monday (Session 10), we responded with our own comprehensive contract proposal. We were able to make progress in some areas but remained apart on some fundamental economic items, as described below. Here are the key updates:
- Wages & Step Adjustments: In the last session, management made a small but substantive move on ghost steps. This led to some useful discussion about the timing and details of the union’s wage proposal and the removal of ghost steps. Management asked many questions, and we hope this signals serious consideration of our proposals.
- Vacation & Holidays: Our updated proposal improves time-off benefits while ensuring fair compensation for working holidays, including when called in on standby.
- Sick Leave & Protected Leave Pay: We proposed allowing nurses to combine sick pay with Washington State Protected Leave pay, ensuring full compensation while on leave. The Hospital understood the goal of the proposal – to ensure a nurse on leave does not lose income—but needs to examine some if its payroll and leave practices before responding.
- 0.3 FTE Positions & Shift Options: To accommodate the employer’s request, we proposed creating a 0.3 FTE option and giving nurses in 0.3 FTE roles a choice between the per diem premium or limited benefits (sick and vacation leave, excluding medical/dental). We also tried to accommodate the employer with language that would allow four—and six-hour shifts.
- Longevity Step Credit: While the employer acknowledged our desire to move away from hours of service to advance in longevity steps, their proposal delays progress and fails to fix past inequities. Nurses may leave for employers that fully recognize their experience. To help with retention, we proposed language that would gradually advance affected nurses to appropriate longevity steps, and we are pushing them to address this sooner in our contract.
- Break Relief Nurses: We reaffirmed the need for a sufficient number of dedicated Break Relief Nurses so that nurses can go on break without requiring coworkers take a double assignment while they are off the floor. We want to make sure this applies to all WSNA nurses who need relief for breaks. Ensuring our nurses get proper breaks and meal periods is essential for patient safety and retention of nurses.
We want to thank the nurses who showed up to observe this and past sessions! A persistent large presence of WSNA RNs at bargaining sends a strong signal to the hospital. It also allows you to share with your department the latest details from the bargaining table first-hand. You can stop by for whatever amount of time you can spare.
Great turnout at last week’s Board of Commissioners meeting!
On January 21, WSNA nurses and families showed strong support for those who spoke. We felt like the board respected our statements and seemed to genuinely listen to what we had to say.
There were even some tear-jerking moments where nurses discussed the exceptional care they or their families received and how amazing Evergreen is as an organization.
We were clear and concise about our concerns for fair market value pay, promoting retention through pay practices that reflect year-for-year service, elimination of ghost steps, and dissuading unfair practices that promote the use of mandatory on-call in combination with VLC.
We hope the board listens to us and will support the nurses who provide the award-winning care the community receives. We are proud to be WSNA nurses!
Check Your Membership Status
Your membership in WSNA builds power and shows you are actively supporting your union and are behind what we are all trying to accomplish.
We cannot slow down! We all need all WSNA nurses to join in and stand up to remind Evergreen that high-quality patient care relies on high-quality nurses. Your participation makes the difference. Together, we are powerful. Together, we will win.
It’s Not Too Late to Join the Contract Action Team
We always need Contract Action Team Members to help get information from the bargaining team and your coworkers back to the bargaining team. The ideal goal is about 1 team member for every 10 nurses. All departments, all shifts. If you're interested, contact Samuel Scholl at sscholl@wsna.org.[RL1]
WSNA Wednesdays
Wear your WSNA shirt to work on Wednesday! If you still don't have a shirt, contact unit reps, CAT members, and local unit officers. Better yet, ask your coworkers what sizes they need and help us get shirts to them!
IMPORTANT – if you are told not to wear your T-shirt at work, ask if it would lead to discipline if you don’t change into a scrub top. If you are told it would lead to discipline, change into a scrub top, but write down who said that, where you were, and when it happened. If you see anyone wearing anything but scrub tops in clinical areas, note when and who it was. If, for example, your department had custom t-shirts made and they are worn to work in clinical areas, and you are not allowed to wear a WSNA shirt, take note of it and contact Bret Percival at BPercival@wsna.org or send a brief text to 206-471-0876. (Email is preferred for documentation and tracking.)
Upcoming Events
- Monday, 2/3 at 8 PM: Bargaining Update: “Nightcap with negotiators” on Teams. Come join us on the Teams call to get updates on the most recent session and ask your questions.
- Thursday, 2/6 at 8 AM: Bargaining update: “Breakfast with bargainers” on Teams. Come join us on the Teams call to get updates on the most recent session and ask your questions.
- Next Bargaining Session: February 7th. Join the extended bargaining team. We expect the employer to return to the table with serious consideration of the proposals we put forward that reflect what you all have been asking for. You need to be there to hear what the employer has to say. We have proposed additional dates of 2/10 and 2/21 and have scheduled 2/28.
- Monday, 2/10 at 8 PM: Bargaining Update: “Nightcap with negotiators” on Teams. Come join us on the Teams call to get updates on the most recent session and ask your questions.
- Thursday, 2/13 at 8 AM: Bargaining update: “Breakfast with bargainers” on Teams. Come join us on the Teams call to get updates on the most recent session and ask your questions.
- Evergreen Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, February 18th - 1745 outside the TAN 250 Board Room. We need you to show up. We know life is busy, and many people live far away. Please find a way. It’s important for you and your families to attend!
Follow up on Instagram, Facebook, or our web page
https://www.instagram.com/wsna_evergreen/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/evergreenrns
https://www.wsna.org/union/evergreen-healthcare
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Team
Theresa Blazer, Holly Baker, Alicia O’Neal, Nikki Paulson, Sandy Gott, Ryan O’Neill Hawkins, Carol Flaming, Jaclyn Miller, Karen Lasota, Lexi Overa
Questions? Contact your WSNA Officers at localofficers@eh-nurses.com.