Our union met with MultiCare leadership on Monday April 7, 2025, to enter into discussion around the unilateral implementation of break waivers. We’ve heard your concerns, we’ve heard what management is telling nurses, and we continue to meet with leadership as we don’t necessarily agree with their position. See what your leadership said below to our union’s questions!

Can we combine meal and rest breaks as they have been permitted to do over years of employment?

Per HR, they are aware they have departments that they say are not compliant with their policy of not combining meal and rest breaks. They expressed that it would be challenging for them to pay appropriately if a nurse was on a combined break and had part of that interrupted. Our union sees the removal of this as a change in the working conditions for nurses who have been permitted to combine.

 Can we be scheduled for 13.5 hours or stay until 2000 or 8am?

Leadership said this has not been their practice and they don’t intend to change their practice. They refer to an LOU between WSNA and MultiCare about paying for 11.5 hours of work. Our union asked why nurses couldn’t stay to be helping hands on the unit or complete mandatory education since the cost is just straight time and our nurses are 12-hour nurses.

Can we only re-elect waivers quarterly?

Per HR, the Employer is mutually agreeable to waivers but only agreeable to reinstating the waiver quarterly. They shared they are not set up for daily elections electronically and in order to get schedules made in a timely manner, waivers need to be quarterly. Our union is unclear how the 6-week schedule relates to daily waivers and we have heard from our contacts at L&I that waivers are the daily right of the nurse.

Why am I clocking out for a paid rest break?

HR shared that this is not a true clock out but a labor transfer code. When nurses swipe for their rest break, it is akin to when you float to another department and transfer the labor to that cost center.

Waivers are optional and the individual choice of the nurse. If you do nothing, because the employer recognizes these are optional as well, you will default to a 12-hour needing 2, 30-minute meal periods. If you felt coerced into signing a waiver, ask your manager for a new one. If you miss a meal or rest period, DOCUMENT IT, or it didn’t happen. There is additional compensation for missed meals and rest periods. The take home from this meeting is- MORE TO COME.

WSNA Blue looks good on you and you and YOU! 

Sign up with this link to fill in your information and get a WSNA T-shirt. As we all know our contract expires this year and we want every nurse to have one. If you’d like to get more involved, we’ve included options on this sign-up as well. Pictured above- Sarah H. TG WSNA Membership officer, Therese J. TG WSNA Chair, Crystal Anderson MaryBridge NICU Chair, and Dallas WSNA RN during cafeteria time!

Grievance Updates

If you have been working with Brenda B. for grievances, your grievance has been placed into a holding pattern during this time of her leave. Rest assured, if you’ve been working with Brenda, she will reach out to you when she has returned. Let’s talk about what has been filed recently-

• Meal and rest breaks- a grievance on behalf of all nurses at TG related to waiver implementation. Our union has also sent a demand to bargain and will continue to meet with leadership.
• Changing a posted schedule- A nurse is grieving her schedule being changed AFTER it was posted. Article 8.6 of your CBA is clear about this- it states, “Except for emergency conditions involving patient care and low census conditions, posted work schedules may only be changed by mutual consent.”.
• CCU- Our union sent a cease and desist sent regarding nurses being told they are required to sign conduct forms. If you are asked to sign your name, you should always ask your manager is this required or optional? We have also submitted an information request around barcode scanning for bedside report.
• L&D Self Scheduling- A grievance on behalf of all nurses at TG. Management is unilaterally moving to self-scheduling and our nurses don’t want to. It appears they used our nurse’s information in a third party software or website to generate random groups and we have concerns about privacy.

There is still room at convention for you! 

Come join our union at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center April 30-May 2 for Convention. 10.5 CEUs are available for our nurses and an amazing opportunity to get plugged into nurses from other local units. Costs can be reimbursed through your local unit funds. Watch this video and get registered today!

Questions? Reach out to your WSNA Nurse Representative Alle Machorro at amachorro@wsna.org.