After 9 bargaining sessions, the last one being 12 hours long, we have reached a tentative agreement with the hospital. Huge thanks to the hundreds of you who wrote messages on the dozens of posters. It made a big impact. Thanks to everyone who buttoned and stickered up as well, including our non-nurse colleagues at TG. Let’s thank them as well. And now for the news you’ve been waiting for.

• Wage increases of 4.5% on Jan. 1, 2020; 4% in 2021; 3.5% in 2022. Having more wage increases earlier means more money for us all each year following.
• New step 31 and 32
• $1 BSN, MSN or PhD premium
• Additional $4/hr standby pay for call beyond 60 hours in a pay period
• In-house tiered float pool
• Improved grievance language that protects your rights
• Night shift annual bonus up to $1500 for RNs with 4 years experience
• Med Surg staffing ratios of 1:5 with no LPN teams
• Neonatal transport team no longer exempt from rest between shifts premium
• New incentive pay program
• New Baylor weekend shifts for peri-operative services

We know that these are provisions and gains achieved not without tradeoffs. MultiCare would not back down on their requirement of 0.75 FTE to be full-time benefits eligible for new hires after Jan. 1, 2020. All existing MultiCare employees are grandfathered in to maintain this benefit at 0.6 FTE. We also agreed to their proposal of sharing the cost of monthly medical premium increases. We crunched the numbers, and the increases in wages and premiums far outweigh these costs.

Lastly, we want to say that we fought until the bitter end to persuade management to increase the rest between shifts premium for nurses taking call for less than eight hours. They would not budge on this and withdrawing this proposal was a choice that we reluctantly made to bring this otherwise great package proposal to the members for a vote.

Contract Ratification Vote:

Monday, Dec. 16, 2019
Classroom 1 on Commencement
6:30 - 8:30 a.m.
2 - 4 p.m.
6 - 8 p.m.

Your bargaining team,

Ally Bure, OR (not pictured); Charlene Sole, ER; Brenda Bowhay, Mother Baby; Cherie Griffith, Med/Surg; Michelle Stevenson, PCU; Danielle O’Toole, ICU; Liz Leske, Peri-Anesthesia; CJ Johnston, ER; Kayla Dougherty, NICU; Jess Oyler, OR

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sydne James at sjames@wsna.org.