We, your bargaining team, met with management on July 17, 2019 for session number 5.

Paid leave and benefits package - we heard your numerous concerns regarding Children’s Paid Leave and Benefit package. We passed a counter proposal to management’s paid leave and benefit proposal with a number of provisions that are responsive to the concerns you all have raised including but not limited to:

• Increased caps on accrual banks
• Rejected cost sharing for insurance premiums
• Nurses be allowed to retain their currently accrued sick time until utilized
• Retention of current vacation banks for 2 years from the date of ratification to give nurses a reasonable opportunity to use it prior to a cash out
• Service recognition – 8 hours deposited to the holiday bank each year, every year, after 20 years of service
• Accrual of banks based on hours worked, not based on FTE
• WSNA’s proposal is tied to wages of 8% / 7% / 7% - Similar to management, we believe the acceptance of this package should be tied to higher wages.

We have numerous other proposals on the table and are waiting on responses from management:

Parking – Nurses expressed concerns about parking rates, access to parking and shuttle service. Our most recent proposal includes an agreement to not raise parking rates over the life of the contract.

Mileage and time – We have a proposal asking for those who are relocated to other facilities to be paid for both their time and travel. Nurses are often involuntarily relocated from their facility to other facilities miles away and on their own time. This causes some to lose pay when they cannot make it to the new location prior to the start of the shift. Nurses need to be compensated when they are incurring expenses and time on behalf of Children’s.

Shift differential – We have a proposal to add $.50 /hr for those staying on evening or night shift for 2 years and beyond. This is intended to encourage experienced nurses to stay on the off -shifts to support newer nurses.

Baylor nurses – WSNA has proposed that when Children’s changes a Baylor plan nurse’s schedule due to a holiday or training, they should be paid as if they worked their consecutive weekend shift and not incur a loss of wages.

Shift rotation – Shift rotation should be by mutual agreement only.

On-call/Standby compensation – Increase in On-call compensation from $4 to $4.25 and an extra $5/hr after 30 hours of call. Additionally, with worsening traffic and commute times, increase to a 2-hour window to report.

Unscheduled patient care provisions – to include Clinical Consulting Nurses who are currently omitted from this overtime provision.

Float premium – to capture a particular group of nurses who have been excluded from the float premium yet are acting as float nurses.

Transport team – to include Children’s employed Airlift NW nurses who are doing the same work as the transport team in the transport premium provision.

Communicable diseases – to pay nurses who are required by Childrens to stay home due to exposure of a communicable disease. Nurses should not have to use their vacation or sick time due to an exposure at work.

Staffing – We have proposed improvements to the current staffing language. Our proposal includes, but is not limited to, provisions that require Children’s to provide staffing levels to allow for meal and rest breaks, vacations, and to refrain from giving patient assignments to charge nurses so they are free to perform their charge nurse duties.

Violence in the workplace – We have proposed language regarding workplace violence. Nurses do not come to work expecting to be assaulted or placed in harm’s way by individuals who are threatening or carrying out violent acts. Our language seeks to enhanced security, involvement in the safety committee and a provision to provide pay when nurses are injured as a result of an act of workplace violence.

No-pay protection – We have proposed that the no-pay protection provision apply to all nurses. We have also updated the MOU to reflect the new mandatory overtime laws which go into effect on Jan 1, 2020 which place new restrictions on how pre-scheduled call can be utilized. The new law prohibits pre-scheduled call from being used to address regular changes in patient census or acuity, expected increases in the number of employees not reporting for predetermined scheduled shifts (ie. sick calls, vacation, leaves, etc.).

Got breaks? - Just a reminder that if you do not get an uninterrupted rest or meal period, you should clock out that you missed it. If your manager removes the clocking, please contact WSNA or one of your officers immediately. Even if the unit was well-staffed there are reasons why a nurse may not get his or her break and the hospital MUST pay for time worked.

Come see us!! – Members of your WSNA negotiation team will be hosting cafeteria/Starbucks time. Stop by, ask questions about negotiations, share your comments concerns:

• July 30 at the River entrance Starbucks from 2:30– 6 pm.
• July 31 at the Ocean 7 Cafeteria from noon – 3 pm

Reminder – Do we have your current private (not work) email address? That is the fastest way to receive timely updates. Please contact our Nurse Rep to update this information if there has been a change or if we don’t have your email address. Remember, WSNA is your resource for all questions related to negotiations and other contract matters.

Please contact Local Unit Chair Edna Cortez (ednapcortez722@gmail.com), one of your negotiation team members or WSNA Nurse Rep Sara Frey (sfrey@wsna.org), if you have questions or comments.

In solidarity, your 2019 WSNA negotiation team - Edna Cortez (PACU), Lindsey Kirsch (ED), Diane Gates (PICU), Nancy Wilder (PACU), Ross Beaulaurier (Surgical RC5), Samantha Forte (Acute Care Float), Elizabeth Gideon (Rehab), Shaina Lawson (NICU), Sarah Munro (Bellevue Surg Center), Jennifer Pease (Bellevue Surg. Center), Maria Sixto (Airlift NW), Kara Yates (Medical).