What Do We Want? A Fair Contract. When Do We Want It? NOW!
Posted Apr 25, 2023
Informational Picket Wednesday, April 26 – Be There!
Picket Times: 06:00-08:30 and 11:00-1:30
Location: Across the street from the hospital on SE 15th and 4th Street.
Sign in and grab a picket sign. Food and Treats provided.
Wear your WSNA Blue and come ready to represent!
ALL HANDS ON DECK: Come before or after work; or during your break. If you’re not working, we’ll see you there! Rally with speakers at noon. Invite your family, friends; bring your dogs and union-minded cats.
Bargaining update, the short story: management thinks that they can offer “TG wages” (which are now market wages in Pierce County – see St. Joe’s and St. Clare’s) and that GSH nurses will be content to stay without any other improvements. We know everyone is sick of missing breaks or handing your too heavy patient assignment to your coworker while you try to grab a bite. We know nurses who said that they’re waiting to see how this contract turns out are tired of waiting and are applying to other hospitals where they do have break nurses. We know that we’re fed up with management that doesn’t listen, doesn’t follow the rules, and does whatever it wants without regard to what bedside nurses say is critical for patient care and for retention.
Management needs to understand that we are serious about our demands for Safer Staffing. During yesterday’s negotiations, they failed to address our plan to improve staffing matrices, which include a free charge, free flex, support staff and a break nurse. They only addressed a gradual addition of a break nurse “assignment,” with no guarantees that the break nurse won’t be pulled to take a patient assignment. They refuse to acknowledge how RNs will have even greater patient responsibility with their new Team Nursing model (they also refuse to acknowledge that they need to go through the Staffing Committee and discuss team nursing (the “integrated care model”); imposing it from above is both a violation of the law and dismissive and disrespectful of nurses). Management continues to try to change the call back guarantee from 4 hours to 3 hours (they think that because they are agreeing to increase call pay from $4 to $6 per hour, this makes up for the 1 hour they are shorting nurses on call). They want all nurses to work in ED hold/overflow areas and not call it a Float; and continue to decline our proposal for float pay. They have not accepted our proposal to pay nurses a premium when units fall below the state-submitted staffing matrices. They want us to withdraw our proposal for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee despite the lack of any functioning group that addresses DEI issues. They have not adequately addressed our proposal to improve Rest Between Shifts language, but want to create a “committee to nowhere” to deal with it (meaning, they want to “reopen” the contract in a year to discuss these issues with no promises to improve RBS and no guarantees not to make it worse). We have proposed language to prioritize bargaining unit nurses (FT, PT, and Per Diems) over Travelers and System Floats when it comes to scheduling, opportunities for incentive pay, low census order and float order. A big takeaway – management has proposed removing the President’s Day holiday premium pay; making that standard across MultiCare (we suggested coming into the twenty-first century and making Juneteenth the standard but MultiCare isn’t interested in that).
Emergency Virtual Sip and Chat Tonight, 4/25, at 8 p.m.
MultiCare has refused to adequately address the issues most important to nurses.
Join us for a special Tuesday night Sip and Chat to find out the latest from negotiations.
You can use the link below (we recommend downloading the Teams app), or dial in to an audio-only call using this number: +1 206-485-2614,,703492094# Phone Conference ID: 703 492 094#.
Share Your Staffing Story
We’ve heard your stories on staffing and how it has impacted your ability to give patient care. These stories matter – your testimony for the Department of Health hearing on Friday, April 28 makes an impact on how they decide to proceed with the proposed expansion of the Good Samaritan Tower.
Follow us on Social Media!
You can share our Facebook picket event at https://fb.me/e/3C6nlyrZ2.
Follow us on Instagram @GSHnurses, and on our Facebook page at Good Samaritan Nurses. To join the private Facebook group for RNs, ask your unit rep or a bargaining team member to add you.
In solidarity, your bargaining team:
Mindy Thornton, Jared Richardson, Aaron Bradley, Raeli Korzeniecki, Dawn Morrell, Anne Landen, Ashley Eubanks, Atalia Lapkin, Erin Butler, and Paul Grantham
If you’d like to observe bargaining; need more picket pledges; need T-Shirts; want to know how you can get more involved with your Union, contact Organizer Grace Lamonte GLamonte@wsna.org. Next bargaining date is May 4.
Questions/Issues, contact Janet Stewart, WSNA Nurse Representative jstewart@wsna.org.
