No deal!

On Thursday, May 7, we met with Overlake for one final attempt to get come to agreement on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for coronavirus provisions including paid administrative leave and hazard pay. We have been fighting for these provisions and more for more than six weeks

These have been the toughest bargaining conditions anyone could imagine. We have spoken to them from the heart; we created and shared a compelling presentation with pictures and your words from ADOs that you submitted; we shared a petition in support of hazard pay for Overlake employees with more than 3,150 signatures. What did we get for our efforts? A proposal that we are unable to agree to.

• Overlake demands that any MOU we sign is not subject to arbitration, which is our right under the grievance procedure in our contract. This means that the nurses and WSNA have no way to enforce the terms of the MOU. In other words, it is not worth the paper it’s written on.
• Overlake is not willing to pay one thin dime of hazard pay. Not today. Not ever.
• Our nursing leadership did not care to read a powerful, compelling document created from your words when you answered the question, “What is the one thing you most want to tell Overlake management about your work experience during coronavirus?” We promised your names would be kept confidential. Overlake would not agree to our request that they not demand any names associated with your comments before reading them. In good faith, we could not share your comments without guaranteed anonymity. That’s right, they did not care to read your comments of your work experience enough to simply agree to not try to track you down later for what you said.

So what’s next? Well, for starters, union-provided masks are coming our way! Next week WSNA plans to hand out tens of thousands of surgical masks to Overlake workers. We do not yet have the date set, so stay tuned for more information. Overlake may not be in a position to provide you with a clean mask, but our union has our backs!

In eight short months, we will be back to the bargaining table to fight for a new three-year contract. Let’s make our union stronger than ever and get the best contract we have ever had. How do we do that? We start by building our membership, and our activism. There is no better time to join WSNA than right now during Nurses Week. Check the WSNA bulletin board on your unit for more information about Nurses Week gifts.

In solidarity,
Chris Birchem, East 3; Gemma Aranda, PACU; Brooke Dodd, South 4; Janet Moore-Lane, IPS; Pauline Whitney-Hille, IPS; Kathryn Geren, PACU; Cherise Horn, South 4; Sharon Sim, South 4; Magdalyn Chu, Emergency; Brenda Elliott, L&D; Jesse Huang-Refuerzo, West 4