Yesterday, we met with management for our fourth bargaining session, joined by many nurses who came to observe the process (thanks, all!). In addition to proposing our first wage proposal (including increased premiums and differentials) and changes to current use and accrual of PTO and EIB, we received two counter-proposals from management on our proposal for a Baylor (weekend-only) shift and for the Racial Justice Taskforce. Both of management’s counter-proposals made us wonder if they’d really heard us because, well, keep reading. We also pushed a conversation regarding a new, unbargained-for (so, unlawful) “secondary call” list in the Cath Lab, in which management has been mandating people who aren’t on call to act like they’re on call, but without the money or the advance notice. Surprise call! Keep reading, and join tonight’s Union Chat  via this Teams link for more details.

Thank You, Observers!

A huge shoutout to the observers that took time out of their day to watch the negotiations process. Our next negotiations session will be on September 18th at the Ranier Olympic Nurses Association (RONA) Office (our Union team will meet together at RONA, and we will meet with management virtually). Any nurse is welcome to show up and come observe! Email glamonte@wsna.org or reach out to a member of your bargaining team for details or if you have any questions.

Here’s what some of our observers had to say about the experience of watching negotiations:

“What I real got out of it is that we have a very passionate, very strong team that is willing to fight hard for what we deserve as nurses here at St. Joseph’s. We all work hard, and we’re all working hard toward a better place to work in…I really hope that you can come out and show solidarity with everyone who is fighting for us here at St. Joseph’s!” – Joseph King, CVICU

“I decided to attend today because interacting with my union is really important to me because they’re interested in my well-being, not how much money I can make for them. Being a part of the process, observing negotiations and talking with everybody was really interesting because I have so much more insight into the whole process. I definitely plan on attending more negotiations in the future.” – Karli Kooi, PCU Resident

We’ve Started Talking About Money

We gave management our initial wage proposal yesterday. Based on the new wage scale that we negotiated a year and half ago (in the middle of the contract) that resulted in raises of 6.6% to 17.26% for nurses in addition to the raises we negotiated last contract (this wage scale can be found on the St. Joe’s WSNA page), we proposed increases of 7% plus $2.50 to each step of the wage scale (that is – each step would increase by a combination of both 7% and $2.50). This combination of a percentage increase plus a dollar amount helps newer nurses afford to live in Tacoma as they get their career started while ensuring that senior nurses receive substantial increases that recognize their experience and tenure at the hospital.

We also proposed increases to several premiums and differentials, and proposed two new differentials on top of the night shift diff: one that recognizes nurses with two or more years of longevity who work nights, and another that gives charges on nights an additional bump (both of these differentials exist at Overlake Hospital).

We proposed changes to PTO and EIB, as well. We proposed the ability to access EIB after the ninth hour of being sick; we proposed the ability to transfer EIB to PTO twice a year, as long as a nurse left a cushion of 48 hours in their EIB bank; and proposed that nurses who leave St. Joe’s will be able to take a percentage of EIB at higher values and earlier. We also proposed changing the current tiers of PTO to reflect a 10-14 year tier, and then starting the last tier five years earlier for nurses at 15+ years.

Management’s Counters Were….

Management countered our Baylor shift proposal with something that is….not a Baylor shift. We based our proposal on the standard Baylor shift model, and existing language both at Tacoma General (hi, neighbor!) and at Virginia Mason (hi, cousin!) – a nurse agrees to work two shifts every weekend (so, working 24 hours a week) and is paid as if they had worked 36 hours. The benefit to management is that short staffing problems on weekends are greatly reduced (as are the needs for incentive shifts and last minute scrambles); the benefit for nurses is increased pay for fewer hours. Management’s counter was that a nurse would work every weekend for three shifts and get paid for 40 (those extra four hours at base wage – no premiums or differentials). We haven’t yet figured out if this is real counter, or if they’re just unclear on the concept.

Management also proposed a counter to our Racial Justice Taskforce proposal. Suffice it to say that – given the community we serve, given the diversity of Tacoma, and given the disproportionately low numbers of Black and brown nurses at St. Joe’s – we are underwhelmed (we could say that we are disappointed but that would imply we were surprised).

Secondary call AKA the bubble list AKA wholly invented and unlawfully implemented call

 In the Cath Lab, someone (is it the department? is it HR? the level of gaslighting and lack of accountability and buck-passing is something to behold) decided to institute a new policy wherein if one of the two scheduled nurses on standby called out, the least senior nurse was automatically bumped to being on standby. Think about that – if you’re the least senior nurse who isn’t on scheduled standby, you’re expected to act as if you’re on call (staying within 30 minutes of the Hospital, no making plans, no drinking) *and* you don’t get paid for being on standby for days on end! It is a fundamental tenet of labor law that management must bargain over wages, hours, and terms & conditions of employment. We already have contract language on standby and call – management does not get to unilaterally implement its own policies. We have repeatedly raised this issue with Labor Relations and Human Resources, and were pleasantly astonished when management said at negotiations that this practice does not exist, it existed once, and it certainly isn’t happening now (no one was more astonished than the nurses who take call who had been told that they would be put on administrative leave if they refused to be on standby when they weren’t scheduled). We know that call is frequently abused and misused; we will be presenting a proposal regarding call that emphasizes that nurses who take standby must have their time, their health, and their capacity to function respected. Threats and misrepresentations do not retain staff – respect and quality pay for work do.

Shirts are Here - Cafeteria Time Tomorrow!

We'll be in the cafeteria tomorrow from 4-8 tomorrow with your WSNA shirts! Come down and grab a shirt, then take a picture for blue Friday! We will also be distributing shirts to break rooms for those that are unable to come down and grab one.

Union Chatroom Tonight: Bargaining updates, this new unlawful “Secondary Call” list issue, and discussion!

Join your bargaining team for our weekly chatroom to talk about what happened in negotiations at 1900. Join via this Teams link,  or you can dial in on your phone here: +1 206-485-2614,,624183534#.

Questions? Contact Nurse Rep Jared Richardson at jrichardson@wsna.org or Organizer Grace LaMonte at glamonte@wsna.org for more information.

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

You can contact WSNA Nurse Representative Jared Richardson, MSN, RN, at jrichardson@wsna.org or WSNA Organizer Grace LaMonte at glamonte@wsna.org.