With negotiations right around the corner, there has been added interest in stepping up and helping to get the best contract possible. You can help in many ways, whether you have 5 minutes to help a new nurse find their contract or can spend full days as a negotiation team member. It all starts with a text or email to our organizer Crystal Doll. Here are some of the ways you can help the efforts:

1. Apply to represent your unit and nurses’ interests on the negotiation team. Officers will be appointing team members from those who apply. No experience required and plenty of support and coaching is available. As a negotiation team member, you would work closely with a WSNA attorney, our nurse rep Sara Frey, and officers to represent the interests of all WSNA RNs at VM throughout negotiations. To apply to be on the negotiation team please follow this link: https://forms.office.com/r/s2a8wBJHML.
   
2. Become a unit representative. The primary goal of a unit representative is to help keep people united and in the know about actions, activities, and updates for the wider WSNA union at Virginia Mason. Every unit rep has a different style but some common things that URs like to keep on top of are bulletin boards, welcoming new nurses and making sure they know their rights, sharing with people how to find their contract, making sure that officers and our WSNA nurse rep know about any issues that the unit is facing, and encouraging submission of ADOs when there is an unsafe situation at work.
   
3. Become a member of the Contract Action Team. It is easy during negotiations for management to start believing that the nurses at the table are the only people who care and are willing to take action. It takes big, visible demonstrations of support to prove to them that they are not just bargaining with the nurses at the table, they are bargaining with every one of us. This is where the Contract Action Team comes in. Encouraging nurses to wear stickers on negotiation days or other showings of solidarity on your unit, depending on what is currently happening at the table.

Ultimately, our union is only as strong as we are. We need to show that we are united and supporting each other. If you are interested in getting more involved in any way or even just curious about what that could look like, reach out to our organizer Crystal Doll at Cdoll@wsna.org.

Save the dates:

Coffee Talk

Join us Tuesday, March 7, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.in CP-4 to pick up your FREE WSNA T-shirt and meet our Officers, Nurse Representative, and WSNA Organizer. We’ll bring coffee and snacks, you just come with your questions.

Where: WA-Seattle-CP-4

Negotiations Kickoff Event

When - April 18, 2023, 5:30 to 9 p.m.
Where - Ray's Boathouse

What – Join us for our negotiations kickoff event. Here we will officially announce our 2023 contract bargaining team, and chat about the negotiations process and your priorities. Meet your officers, negotiation team members and WSNA staff. This will be an evening event with heavy hors d'oeuvres and an non-alcoholic drinks. There will be a no-host bar available.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN, at sfrey@wsna.org.