On March 1, we had our 11th session with King County management. Thank you to all the nurses that have taken pictures with the signs and sent them to us. We had you on display behind us when we were at the table. The management team took the time to note and praise the assembled photos and signs. Tyler, our chair, provided a powerful personal testimony. It was moving for all present as he gave voice to all those struggling to pay rent and provide childcare and cover the family bills while working in public health.

The focus of the session was a presentation from the longtime JHS Finance and Administrative Services Manager, Brandi DeFazio. She provided more detailed explanation about the budget and actual expenditures around agency nurses and in particular the surge in 2022 where the County spent approximately $6 million approximately 75x more than was budgeted.

Where did that money come from? The short version: there were certain programs, Community-Based Diversion, for example, that were budgeted but not operational that year. That enabled the Department to redirect those unused funds to cover the surge in agency spending. Similarly, the Department had over two dozen budgeted but unfilled career service nurse positions. Same thing – budgeted money that was redirected. Also, DeFazio told us that agency rates increased 3x last year. (No one is expecting them to drop this year).

Given the continued use of agency nurses, it appears the County is on track in 2023 to again spend orders of magnitude more than what is currently budgeted. Will it be $6 million? The County does not seem to know and does not seem to have a clear plan on how it’s going to pay for that. More importantly, we are not getting satisfactory answers to our demand to know who is responsible for fixing this broken system.

Our proposal is to divert those funds to career service positions so that the County can retain and recruit nurses so that it need not continue to rely so heavily on agency nurses. The County says it has that same goal. Unexplainably, its proposal of 4%, 4% does not reflect that goal.

We also emphasized how our proposal to eliminate the RN classification and move all to PHN rates would help immediately to raise the rates in JHS which is experiencing the most acute vacancies (remains at 28).

Our efforts to overhaul the wage structure and bring nurses to market level are taking place against the backdrop of the new ACLU lawsuit.

Now is the time more than ever for all nurses to band together and stand as ONE, United.

Actions to take

1. If you haven't already please sign the petition. It’s an outward sign to management that we are UNITED and ONE. Sign the petition
2. Wear your WSNA blue shirts on negotiations days. Reach out to Michelle Moore (mmoore@wsna.org) or your local unit officers to be able to get your WSNA t-shirt to wear on bargaining days to show your support.
3. Join the local unit's Instagram site, to be able to find up-to-date information. @phskc_staffnurses
4. More information to come about meeting with Dr. Khan

In solidarity

Your Negotiations Team: Tyler, Carolyn, Tami, Elena, and Kaila

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Michelle Moore, BSN, RN at mmoore@wsna.org.