On January 25 we had our 8th day of negotiations.

Economics

Seattle-King County gave a presentation on the union's economic proposal's market analysis and the funding sources for the nurses for the County. The County continues to state that hospital comps provided by the union are not a good comparison for public health, especially the clinic. However, despite this criticism they have not offered any comps or their economic proposal. We have reiterated our demand for data on how much the County has spent on agency nurses. Shockingly, for the third session in a row we were told it will be provided next time.

WSNA presented a compelling and eloquent open letter written by the Jail Health physicians in support of the nurses, imploring the County to compensate them in order to retain the skilled and experienced nurses they rely on.

Comp Time

Standby call-back language- The County continues to state that they would like to remove comp time as an option from this article (Art.6.9) and from holiday time (Art. 15.6). We continue to resist this proposal.

Shared Staffing

The County provided a sample of data from the shared staffing pilot program. The 7 months of data shows that with respect to nurses, the few times the program was used were on a voluntary basis. This shared staffing pilot program was mostly used for the Proctec17 staff. The County states that current contract language does not give them the ability to help clinics with staffing, especially for short-term needs of fewer than 30 days.

Nurse Retention Bonus

This bonus has finally been paid out on your January 19th paycheck. If you feel you should have received this or it was not the correct amount. Please reach out to your Nurse Rep, Michelle Moore at mmoore@wsna.org.

What's next? Show the County it’s time to take care of nurses!

We are back at the table with the County on February 2. Now is the time to be able to band together and make our voices heard.

Show the County that you support your negotiations team, and that the County needs to come to the table with a serious economic proposal. Click on the link below the image to view and download as a printable pdf and take a picture with it, either individually or in groups. Send the pictures back to mmoore@wsna.org. If you have a group meeting with your nurses please email your nurse rep so that she can join you. You can email Michelle at mmoore@wsna.org. Also, remember to take a picture with the Take Care of Nurses placard when you have group meetings.

In solidarity your bargaining team

Tyler, Tami, Carolyn,Kaila and Elena