VM has been on a tear recently of misstating contract language, spreading misinformation like wildfire, wholly inventing policies and justifications for preventing staff from wearing stickers, physically bullying people and, just yesterday, employing selective reading skills to deny union staff access to nurses lounges. Yesterday, WSNA provided advance notice to the Hospital in accordance with the Contract that we would be in the Hospital, something we have done many times over the years. When WSNA staff requested access to the CP7 nurses’ lounge – a right we are entitled to under the Contract – med-surg director Josiah Wedgewood who was on management’s bargaining team to negotiate the current contract and negotiated the current “access” language  apparated onto the floor, pulled a paper copy of the Contract out of his back pocket, and read aloud the language to WSNA staff that he said proved that Union staff couldn’t access nurses lounges because they weren’t public areas and it didn’t have a bulletin board that needed updating.* Here’s the Contract language that Josiah man(ager)splained to WSNA staff while standing in the middle of the hallway outside of CP7:

(The bolded part is the only part that Josiah initially read. He skipped the first sentence where it says “the Union may have access at reasonable times to nurses’ lounges….”)

Corporate labor relations then got involved in the discussion which summarily devolved into some argument that the lounge didn’t have a bulletin board, it had a white board instead (which we can’t help but read as “It’S nOt A bUlLeTiN bOaRd...”).

In short, WSNA was denied access to nursing lounges which has been the practice for decades. The Hospital kicked out our rep last year during bargaining which necessitated the filing of an unfair labor practice charge. Not only is the Hospital once again resorting to these unlawful and desperate tactics but some managers have decided that labor law is theirs to invent. Back to Josiah, he’s been telling staff that they can’t wear Union stickers (you know, the kind we wore all through our bargaining campaign) because – and this is the “choose your own adventure” part of management’s law-breaking justifications – the adhesive is an infection risk (apparently, a very different adhesive than that in visitors’ badges or the “I got my flu vaccine” stickers of yore), or that the stickers are political speech and therefore “inappropriate” in the Hospital. Josiah attended a huddle and actually implied that nurses who continued to wear stickers “could” be sent home (when pressed on that, Josiah equivocated and disapparated).

FACT CHECK INTERLUDE:

From the National Labor Relations Board:

Aaaaaand, back to the Contract: “Nurses shall be permitted to wear Union insignia.” (From the MOU, Staff Nurse Uniform Policy)

What is going on with VM management? What, precisely, is the Hospital afraid of?  Instead of partnering with WSNA to better working conditions, the Hospital is attempting to bully, intimidate, and harass nurses to weaken your voice. Don’t fall for it!

The Hospital’s campaign has also included intimidating nurses on the Staffing Committee who refuse to agree to severe staffing cuts that threaten our ability to provide a standard of care as required by the Nurse Practice Act, and counseling or disciplining nurses who raise staffing complaints and concerns which is illegal under the staffing law, under labor law, and violates the contract.  This is vile behavior by an organization that has the temerity to use “human kindness” as a slogan.

DO NOT be intimidated by VM’s unlawful and bullying behavior. You have the right to expect that the Hospital will follow the contract, will follow the staffing law, will follow labor laws, and will hold managers accountable to standards of basic human decency at a bare minimum. WSNA will be taking swift action to address these newer concerns. Speak up if your manager or director says or does something that does not feel right to you or you believe is a contract violation; contact one of your officers or Nurse Rep Sara Frey sfrey@wsna.org.

*Funny story: the CP7 nurses’ lounge did have a WSNA bulletin board for about 6-7 years until it was mysteriously stripped of all Union materials informing nurses of their legal rights last week. Now, it would be a violation of federal labor law if management were to take down Union materials, so we wrote that on the board. Want to guess what happened?

In solidarity,

Hannah Collins-Lewis, Chair
Michael Salters, Vice Chair
Kimberly Travis-Carter, Secretary
Samuel Asencio, Treasurer
Donna Watts, Grievance Officer
Aaron Persinger, Grievance Officer
Kim Adekoya, Grievance Officer

Sara Frey, Nurse Representative, sfrey@wsna.org