Last Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, CommonSpirit leadership sent WSNA “Discretionary Broad Based Awards” proposals for SJMC, St Clare Hospital and Virginia Mason. The proposals stated if the agreements were not signed and returned before Sept. 24, 2021 the offers would be withdrawn. WSNA staff along with the Local Unit Officers reviewed the offers and found they were inequitable and also relinquished our union rights to file grievances and Unfair Labor Practices. It included:

• Provisions that do not apply to bargaining unit workers,
• CommonSpirit’s insistence on “meets expectations” as a predicate for receiving the bonus in a year where continuing to show up when nurses are working so short-staffed should be reason enough,
• Nurses must have been employed on or before from July 1, 2020 to June 30,2021, and continuously on the CommonSpirit Health payroll to receive $1000 for working a minimum of 1600 hours and $750 for working more than 800 hours but, less than 1600 hours. Nurses that work less than 800 hours get nothing.
• WSNA would waive its rights to file an unfair labor practice charge or a grievance if the Employer violates any part of the MOU.

WSNA sent CommonSpirit a demand to bargain with the goal of negotiating an agreement that treated all WSNA nurses fairly and union rights were not waived. CommonSpirit leadership did meet with us for one hour yesterday. Unfortunately, they were not willing to budge on anything. It was a take it or leave it proposal. WSNA leadership along with our Local Unit Officers made the decision to refuse to accept the inequitable offer and file an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board over the Employer’s refusal to engage in good-faith bargaining over this MOU.

Stay tuned. We will keep you informed about what transpires going forward.

In Solidarity,
Barbara Friesen
WSNA Nurse Repre­sen­ta­tive
bfriesen@wsna.org.