Today at session 14 of negotiations, we served management with a ten-day notice for a targeted strike in the Procedural Cath Lab and Electrophysiology units at St. Joe’s from December 24 – January 2, with full WSNA Labor Executive Council support. This is possibly the first strike in the nation in which only a specific hospital department will strike. This bold action is a direct response to the unacceptable and, based on complaints issued by LNI, illegally mandated call imposed on nurses in these units. Despite being sanctioned for illegally mandating overtime, management continues to engage in this practice and threaten nurses with insubordination and administrative leave if they push back on taking excessive and ambush call at the last minute and on their days off. Management just doesn’t care – not about patients, not about nurses, and apparently not about the law.

We do not take the decision to strike lightly but feel that we have exhausted all other options to compel management to address this critical issue. If managements fails to correct this unacceptable situation, the strike will begin for Procedural Cath Lab and EP *only* at 0600 on 12/24/24 and continue through 0600 on 1/2/25.

To all other hospital units: this strike does not extend to your departments. The only nurses striking are the procedural nurses in Cath Lab and EP Lab. All other nurses in the Bargaining Unit will continue to report to work as normal.

We will provide additional details soon, including an FAQ, opportunities to join drop-in info sessions and ways to support our colleagues in Cath Lab and EP. Stay tuned, stay informed, and stay united. Together, when we fight, we win.

Sarah Guillen in the EP Lab and Kim Romriell and Avalon Perez-Adams in Procedural Cath Lab spoke about why they are striking in this video: “It is time to strike for EP Procedural and Cath Lab... for the safety of our patients. We are fighting for our work life balance and the fact that when we have a scheduled day off we want to schedule things with our family. Because when we are at work, we’re all in at work. We have the right to be all in with our family at the same time. We want to fight for our community...We’re tired. We’re not heard. We feel used and abused and that is why Cath Lab and EP Procedural staff are here and saying that we are going on strike.”

In solidarity,
Your WSNA Officers and Negotiating Team
Emily Nollmeyer, local unit Co-Chair, Labor and Delivery, day shift
Carina Price, local unit Co-Chair, ICU, night shift
Matthew McGuire, Treasurer/Grievance officer, ED, day shift
Shelly Mead, Grievance officer, ED, day shift
Yunna Flenord, Grievance officer, ICU, night shift
Teresa Kindell, Membership Coordinator, 2S, day shift
Shannon Suchland, Secretary, Walter's OR, day shift
Sally Budack, Co-Secretary, SADU, day shift
Jessica Lenczycki, negotiating team member, Labor and Delivery, night shift
Kate Frazier, negotiating team member, 7^th floor, night shift
Sarah Guillen, negotiating team member, EP, day shift
Kat Jabasa, negotiating team member, Main OR, day shift

Questions or comments? Contact Rep Jared Richardson at jrichardson@wsna.org or Organizer Grace LaMonte at glamonte@wsna.org.