On July 22, we completed our fourth day of negotiations. Your WSNA bargaining team began the day with a presentation by Ian Mikusko, WSNA Strategic Researcher, which included an assessment of Providence’s overall financial health.  Providence is in good financial shape in 2024.

As of March, it had over $8 billion in unrestricted cash and investments and about 108 days “cash on hand,” which means that it could cover all of its operating expenses, including payroll, for 108 days without taking in a single penny of revenue.

In short, Providence has the resources to pay the wages that we are proposing.

Our presentation also demonstrated that Providence VNA is severely underpaying its nurses. PVNA’s wages lag behind those of Sacred Heart and Holy Family by about 24% on average.  Providence tells us that the wage discrepancy is justified because those are acute care facilities and PVNA is not.  We are not sure what to make of that statement, but we will contemplate it as we work alone, in environments we cannot control.

We also demonstrated that Providence pays its PVNA nurses much less than it does at other Providence home health and hospice facilities.  Moreover, many hospitals in Washington, including Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla, pay their home health and hospice nurses the same as their nurses working in the hospital.

The result of Providence’s insistence on underpaying PVNA nurses is unsurprising and profound.  PVNA continues to rely heavily on expensive traveler nurses as it continues to bleed nurses who find more lucrative work elsewhere.  While Sacred Heart, Holy Family and Kadlec have seen healthy increases in the number of RNs employed, PVNA is 10% down from last year.

With fewer RNs to do the work, PVNA is seeking to squeeze more from those who have stayed.  PVNA proposed to eliminate daily overtime pay from the contract which would have saved Providence money for working nurses after their shifts ended.  At our last session, we were successful in getting Providence to drop this proposal.  However, Providence continues to propose placing more burdensome requirements on relief nurses, including limiting them to selecting from only those shifts in need and requiring them to work weekends in every work schedule.

PVNA does not have a weekend work problem.  It has a core staffing problem caused by Providence underpaying its nurses and heavily relying on expensive traveler nurses who we understand are not required to work weekends.  The solution is simple: stop underpaying PVNA nurses.

At our next session, we will continue talking compensation and roll up our sleeves to ensure Providence does what it needs to do to protect our nurses when they are out in field.  So far, Providence has rejected our proposals for security escorts upon request and for a personal safety app to be loaded on to nurses’ work phones.  Providence tells us that none of these devices will function on work phones because of Providence’s firewalls.  We are astounded that Providence, a $29 billion organization, cannot find a way to make a commonly-used safety device employed by many other entities work on its phones.

Stay tuned!

It’s time to ACT! Join us!

Your next local unit meeting is in person, July 29 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Dinner will be served. Come hungry. Arrive as early as you want to  finish charting or just visit. RSVP to Kathleen Thompson WSNA Chair by July 26.

Location: at Donni Heidenson’s house. 
9615 E. North Rim LN
Spokane, WA 99217

Rolling out car signs, and we need your help!

Come to the meeting, pick up a car/window sign and get instructions on what to do next. Pictures are needed to post to social media, and to include in future communications. The goal of this action is to put pressure on management, sending a message to take the negotiating team of nurses seriously at the bargaining table! Let’s stand together and ACT! We are ONE.

Get Social!

Continue to wear WSNA blue by way of buttons, badge buddies or any swag while at work. If you are on Facebook and Instagram, be sure to follow us!

Join us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/providencevnahomehealthrns

VNA Nurses at WSNA are now on Instagram!  https://www.instagram.com/wsna_vna/

Special thanks to your negotiating team: Kathleen Thompson, Amanda Crawford, Carolyn Chandler, Rachael Morgan for their hard work and dedication.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Jaclyn Smedley, BSN, RN at jsmedley@wsna.org.