Your bargaining team recommends a “YES” vote

VOTE on July 1, 2022, from 1600-1900 in Conference Rooms 1&2

Over seven long bargaining sessions, your fellow nurses on the WSNA bargaining team worked very hard to secure a fair contract for the nurses at Arbor Health Morton Hospital. In the end, with the nurses attending board meetings and signing petitions, we were able to secure an agreement that secured significant enhancements for the unit and fought off several negative changes proposed by management.

TERM: Contract will expire on March 31, 2025.

WAGES: 7% (effective first full pay period after ratification); 4% (4/1/23); 4% (4/1/24). When you take into consideration the step increases, nurses, depending on step, will receive overall wage increases between 15% to over 27% over the life the contract.

SIGNING BONUS: RNs: $1,000 for full-time and part-time nurses. $400 for casual part-time nurses. LPNs: $800 for full-time and $500 for part-time nurses.

Premiums and other compensation:

BSN Premium (NEW!). Nurses who have a BSN shall be paid a premium of $1.00 per hour. Nurses who have both a certification and a BSN will receive a premium of $2.00 per hour.

Shift Differential. Night shift differential will be increased from $4.00 to $4.50.

Specialty Premium. Nurses who maintain competency to work in the ER shall receive a $1.75 premium for all time worked in the ER. Nurses who maintain competency to work in the OR shall receive a $1.75 premium for all time worked in the OR. Charge nurses will not receive these premiums and will instead continue to receive the higher charge nurse premium.

Workplace issues:

Pay for Participation in Investigatory, Disciplinary or Grievance Proceedings. New language stating that nurses who participate in an investigatory, disciplinary or grievance proceeding on behalf of another nurse during their working time will be paid at the nurse’s regular rate of pay. New language stating that nurses may request an association representative at an investigatory meeting.

Non-Discrimination. New language that neither the hospital nor the Association will discriminate against any nurse on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, disability, or membership or non-membership in the union.

Shift Rotation. Previously, the contract gave the hospital broad authority to rotate shifts. Now shift rotation must be by mutual agreement except in emergency circumstances.

Personnel File. New language clarifying that disciplinary notices older than 18 months, while they may remain in a nurses personnel file, may not be considered for purposes of future discipline.

Job Transfers. New language stating that a transfer may be held for up to 90 days if the transferring nurse’s position has been filled, but the replacement employee has not yet started or been fully oriented. Otherwise, the transfer must occur within 60 days.

Extra Shifts. Management proposed significant changes to the process for signing up for extra shifts. They felt that the current system was too cumbersome. We streamlined the process somewhat but kept in place the important elements of the current system, such as allowing nurses to sign up for shifts after the schedule comes out based upon seniority. Nurses will have three days after the schedule comes out to sign up for extra shifts based upon seniority. Management will e-mail the open shifts to all nurses who can sign up in person or by calling the nursing station.

Evaluations. New language clarifying that evaluations may be electronic but must be made available to the employee to print.

Work Day. New language clarifying that a 10-hour shift is a normal work day in surgical services.

Weekends. Previously, the contract had an unnecessarily complicated method of determining which weekend is paid at time and a half when a nurse works three consecutive weekends. The language has been simplified to state that it is the third weekend which is paid at the time and a half rate.

Grievances. New language stating that the parties may agree to use mediation to attempt to resolve a grievance. We also agreed to increase the time within which a nurse must challenge a step one decision from 5 days to 14 days.

RN Staffing Committee. We secured several enhancements to the RN staffing committee language. Nurses cannot be retaliated against or disciplined for making a report or a complaint to the staffing committee. Nurse members of the committee are paid for their time spent in committee meetings. The agenda will be distributed to all staff committee members at least one week in advance of each meeting. All minutes of the staffing committee must be approved.

Surgical Services Standby. Management had a strong interest in requiring mandatory call for nurses in Surgical Services. We convinced them not to do that and agreed to monthly meetings over the course of a year to discuss methods of expanding Surgical Services nursing coverage and expanding the scope and volume of services offered by Surgical Services. We preserved the current system of voluntary standby for coverage.

Some of the things that management proposed and that your WSNA team fought off:

Rest Between Shifts. Management proposed to reduce the amount of rest between shifts. WSNA SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT OFF THIS PROPOSAL.

Low Census. Management proposed to eliminate the cap on the amount of low census a nurse is required to take. WSNA SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT OFF THIS PROPOSAL.