That’s a wrap for days one and two of bargaining!

Your bargaining team met with Evergreen management for our first two days of negotiations on September 12 and September 16. On Day 1, we introduced ourselves as bargaining team members and made statements about our reasons for being on the team and the issues we plan to prioritize, which are based on the issues you have told us are important to you. Thank you for wearing stickers on our two negotiation days. Please keep it up – we return to the bargaining table October 1.

We presented the first proposal on September 12, focusing mostly on non-economics (proposals that do not involve a financial cost to the Employer). This included proposals that would: allow low census hours to count toward family medical leave hours; clarify contract language to apply “just cause” to all per diems; and update the Nurse Staffing Committee language to reflect the new Hospital Staffing Committee and protect nurse voices in staffing. We also presented what we consider to be straightforward proposals to change the reference to ourselves in the contract to “Union,” to replace the archaic “receipted telegram” as an option for sending recall notice with email (with receipt confirmed), and to use inclusive language to reflect nurses who are gender non-binary/non-conforming. Evergreen has not accepted these proposals (though did state they are not opposed to changing pronoun references). We did not receive any proposals from the Employer on Day 1.

On September 16, the Employer presented a “counter” to our proposal which included failing to explicitly accept any of our proposals; deleting most of the Nurse Staffing Committee language in the CBA, expanding Baylor shifts to include a 0.9 FTE Baylor (with Friday work), and language stating “just cause” applies to Tier 2 per diem nurses outside EHCS. We then responded with our counter to their counter, which maintained most of our proposals. We presented a comprehensive proposal on Article 9 (Holidays) and Article 10 (Vacations), which reflects concerns articulated by you. For example, we proposed to increase vacation accruals to match those of comparable hospitals, provide parameters for vacation approvals so that we are better able to take the vacation leave we have earned, align holiday pay with our regular workday, and expand holidays to include MLK day and Juneteenth.

Evergreen has not provided substantive responses to many of our requests for documents and information related to our proposals in bargaining – which we need in order to inform our proposals. We received a letter from Evergreen’s attorney towards the end of the day on September 16 objecting to many of our requests and not providing documents (as one example, we requested personnel policies affecting our bargaining unit nurses and Evergreen objected and did not provide the policies).

We know that it is all of us working together and staying informed that will get us what we need to keep strong, compassionate, skilled nurses here at Evergreen. This is all of us, advocating for ourselves, our patients, and each other. They may try to divide us, but we can't let them. Our patients are more important than their purse strings.

Many of you have been reaching out and asking how you can help and how you can stay in the know. We have heard you loud and clear and we have plans in the works. As one of our initial steps, we are happy to announce that we have launched our own Instagram account! Please follow and share! More exciting posts and updates to come.

https://www.instagram.com/wsna_evergreen/

We are also looking forward to scheduling regular virtual bargaining update meetings that you will not only be able to listen in to, but also as an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the bargaining process. We will send out more info as it becomes available via text and email, which brings up another point... Do we have your most up to date contact information? It is more critical now than ever that we all stay informed about the issues.

Update your contact info here:

Update your member record - WSNA

Want to get plugged in to help? Email or text our Organizer Crystal Doll. Cdoll@wsna.org or (206) 334-8388

If you’re not a member yet, or not sure if you are, now is the time and it’s easier than ever to sign up online. Dues are based on a sliding scale determined by your FTE. Get the details and fill out your application here:

Membership application - WSNA

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Bret Percival at bpercival@wsna.org.