Voting for the new contract took place last Thursday and Friday, and the WSNA nurses at St. Clare Hospital overwhelmingly voted YES to ratification with a record turnout and 99% of nurses voting YES! The contract is now in full effect (excepting anything with specific timeframes such as the weapons detector in the ED), including wages, premiums, differentials, and wages will be back paid to 2/2/2025.

This contract is a massive win for all the nurses at St. Clare’s and will make our hospital a better place to work for all. We are especially proud of ending the historically unjust practice of giving nurses with international experience only 50% credit for their experience. Nurses affected by this practice will be brought up to the correct step and back paid to 2/2/2025 the difference between their current step and their corrected step. If you are a nurse who was given less credit for your international experience than you deserved, you must reach out to your nurse representative Jared Richardson at JRichardson@WSNA.org to start the process of being re-stepped.

Internal Disaster at St. Joe’s and Tacoma General

This weekend power issues at Tacoma General Hospital led to that facility needing to divert patients to St. Joseph Medical Center. WSNA was approached by HR to come to an agreement to allow nurses from St. Clare’s to go work at SJMC to help. We came to an agreement on an emergency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to allow SCH nurses to go to SJMC with a $5/hour incentive. We also came to an agreement that parking tickets at SJMC would be waived for nurses parked in non-red curb, non-physician parking areas. The agreement requires mutual agreement to extend the MOU every 24 hours. You can view the MOU here. If you have questions, please contact your nurse rep at JRichardson@WSNA.org.

Rainier Olympic Nurses Association

Did you know that as a member of WSNA at St. Clare’s you are also automatically a member of Rainier Olympic Nurses Association, the regional professional nurses association for our area. RONA offers a wide variety of professional development opportunities including scholarships and CE credit through workshops and training. RONA also acknowledges the hard work nurses do including honoring a Nurse of the Year. If you know a nurse who deserves to be acknowledged for the work they do, you can nominate them here.

In Solidarity,

Your Bargaining Team, 
Clair Korrell, Co-Chair  
Devon Tallman, Co-Chair  
Savvy Baily, Interim Treasurer  
Jessica Cook, Co-Secretary  
Nikki Wright, Co-Secretary  
Erin Stoner, Grievance Officer  
Tiffany Stephansky, Grievance Officer  
Brandi Poggemann, Membership Officer  
Molly McKinney, Membership Officer