Celebrate 25 years of collective bargaining at Kadlec

In 1996 Kadlec RNs negotiated a first contract.

Contract Highlights:

• Base: $16.30
• Step 25: $25.98
• Lead RN: 0.97, Float: 0.67
• Weekends: $2.57
• Nights: $2.24
• Swing: $1.47

A big thank you to the early leaders from 1996:

• Colleen Lewis, Co-Chair
• Sally Gardner, Co-Chair
• Stephanie Gibson, Vice Chair
• Donna Kingma, Treasurer/Secretary/Membership Coordinator
• Margie Hugues, Grievance Officer

Staffing Committee

WE NEED YOU!
Meri Bukovinsky, Melissa Morris, and Paula Spencer attend this monthly meeting. This is simply not enough. We need a nurse representing each department to ensure your voice is heard when issues involving your unit arise.

Why? To protect patients and to support greater retention of nurses and to promote evidence-based nurse staffing, a nurse Staffing Committee was created at the Hospital pursuant to RCW 70.41.410 and successors thereto.

What? We discuss the staffing plans, the matrix, skills, and training, Assignment Despite Objection (ADO) and other unit specific issues with recommendations and voting.

When? We meet monthly for 1 hour (currently on TEAMS)

Contact your officers, WSNA Nurse Representative or the Staffing Committee members listed above if you want more information or to volunteer.

Assignment Despite Objection (ADO

When you fill out an ADO it will a record that you have put the concerns that you are experiencing in a documented legal record. To address these concerns, they should FIRST be presented to your manager, PCC and then, complete an ADO. The WSNA form sends an immediate copy to the CNO, WSNA Chair and WSNA Nurse Representative. If you fill out an incident report, make note of this on the ADO. Be as descriptive as possible on the form.

Every time these are submitted, WSNA keeps an on-going tally of the issues. These staffing problems are submitted to the legislature by law. We must continue to work hard at ensuring these are filed so that we can help make a positive change in safe staffing laws. You can find the ado form at https://www.wsna.org/union/ado .

These are the most prevalent filings in the last 2 months:

• Lead RN taking patients
• Insufficient support staff
• Increase workload and acuity
• Inability to take breaks for rest, meals and pumping for nursing moms
• Holding patients

WSNA Nurses Unite for Safe Staffing event

Nurses at the bedside know that staffing levels have reached crisis levels due to burnout, moral injury, and hospi­tals’ failure to take action to retain nurses. But even before the pandemic, so many of us were stretched to the limit, forced to take too many patients, and work long shifts without a break.

We need more than a quick fix – we need action to ensure safe staffing now and in the future.

The Cabinet on Economic and General Welfare invites you to join your fellow union nurses across Washington state for WSNA Nurses Unite for Safe Staffing! This free event will be held virtu­ally on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 8 – 10 a.m.

At this event you will:

• Learn about WSNA’s efforts in coali­tion with other health care unions to create account­ability with enforce­able laws and staffing standards every hospital must meet.
• Find out how you can take action to achieve safe staffing on every unit, in every hospital in Washington state and ensure that hospi­tals take every avail­able measure to ensure our commu­ni­ties receive the care they deserve.
• Hear from state and national labor leaders about how they are standing behind Washington nurses in our fight for safe staffing.

Featured speakers

• Randi Weingarten, American Feder­a­tion of Teachers (AFT) presi­dent, will discuss national labor support for safe staffing.
• Larry Brown, Washington State Labor Council presi­dent, will share how unions in Washington are working together to win safe staffing.
• April Sims, Washington State Labor Council secre­tary treasurer, will discuss safe staffing through an equity lens.
• David Keepnews, execu­tive director of WSNA, will share research supporting safe staffing and how nurses can leverage it into meaningful action.
• Julia Barcott, chair of WSNA’s Cabinet on Economic and General Welfare, will share WSNA's efforts to protect and advocate for our nurses on the frontlines.

When and where
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 8 — 10 a.m. This is a virtual online event. A link will be provided after registration.

Grievances

• PTO Denials- Kadlec has been either giving a straight denial or a pending to consider once the time requested is near. The “pending” reply is against the CBA. A manager has 2 weeks once a PTO request is made to respond with an approval or denial. This has made it impossible to purchase tickets for travel or attend a special event. It is imperative that nurses receive their requested PTO if the staffing matrix is met with the unit’s allowable number of nurses on a given shift time. A chronic staffing problem should not translate into a nurse being denied PTO. There was a total of 674 denied September 2020-September 2021. This grievance has been moved to Step 3 to meet with the CEO.
• CDU/3 OP Forced Float w/o pay- Kadlec opened 3 OP without having nurses to staff. They utilized Resource and CDU nurses to staff until new nurses could be moved into 3 OP. The CDU nurses have been forced to float to 3 OP and denied out of float cluster pay. Kadlec’s position is that 3 OP did not exist from July 13 - Sept. 12. It was two areas of CDU. The patient mix did not reflect this. This grievance has been moved to Step 3 to meet with the CEO.
• Non-Discrimination- Nurses who sought an exemption from the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate have brought forth this grievance over the far-reaching and discriminatory declination bullets. This grievance has been moved to Step 3 to meet with the CEO.

Retention Bonus and Incentive Extra Incentive Shift Bonus

We have had a few nurses that did not receive their retention bonus. These have been forwarded to HR for resolution. The extra shift bonus has been difficult to decipher on the pay stub and there is the issue of the shifts being paid only once a month. If you are experiencing any problems with either, let an Officer or Laurie Robinson know.

COVID-19

If you become ill with the virus or you are exposed and require a quarantine period, please do the following:

1. Call your manager
2. Call Employee Health
3. Try preserving PTO/PTO SAFE SICK (see below)
4. To file directly with L&I under HELSA F417-291-000 Q&A: Protecting High-Risk Employees from Discrimination During Public Health Emergencies (wa.gov)
5. Contact Sedgwick when considering STD or PFML

WSNA’s online courses help you earn CNE contact hours to enhance your professional competency

Use the link below to learn more:

Officer Executive Meeting

The officers met on Oct. 13. A vote was taken to fill the position of Chair and Treasurer for appointment. Meri Bukovinsky has accepted the Chair position and Vanessa Douglas has accepted the Treasurer position.

The officers will be meeting monthly. We will be attempting to secure a room at Kadlec for an in-person bargaining unit meeting as well as having virtual options. Look for an announcement by next week.

For any questions or concerns please contact one of the officers or our nurse rep:

Meri Bukovinsky (CDU) Chair Cell: 208-739-3439 hart.meri@gmail.com
Bethany Reed (PACU) Vice Chair Currently on a LOA
Vanessa Douglas (ICU) Secretary/Treasurer Cell: 352-682-0342 vanessa.p.douglas@gmail.com
Yaamen Aldaas (9 RP) Member at Large Cell: 509-771-0326 yaamen.aldaas@gmail.com
Jillian Martin (ED) Grievance Officer Cell: 509-308-3751 Blondiejilli@yahoo.com
Laurie Robinson, WSNA Nurse Representative Cell: 206-620-4136 lrobinson@wsna.org