Next Local Unit meeting
Oct. 7, 2024 at 6 pm

Donni Heidenson’s house (contact an officer for the address)

A more detailed negotiation update will be presented, as well as the next call to ACTION.

We completed our 6th day of negotiations on September 10. We spent much of the day pressing for language to address our serious workplace violence concerns.  We continued to stress that nurses must be able to exercise their professional judgment as to whether a situation is unsafe. We also stressed the need for security escorts when requested and the availability of a security app, such as Bond Air Guardian, on our work phones.

In support of our efforts at the table, we read the bargaining unit petition (see below) demanding that core values be addressed in these negotiations. Your hard-working negotiating team secured signatures on the petition from over 97% of the bargaining unit in just one week.  This powerful expression of unity and strength by the bargaining unit resulted in management agreeing for the first time to install a safety app on all work phones. However, management continues to reject our proposals for security escorts.  So, there is more work to be done.

We explained to management why it is important to have nurses involved in the decision making as to whether a Complex Case Review is warranted for a particular patient.  Management conveyed to us that “we do hear you and want to hear your voices,” but we have not yet reached agreement as to the degree of the nurse’s involvement in the process. Your negotiating team feels that the voice of nurses is of utmost importance when it comes to Workplace Violence. We will not be silenced.

We had a frank discussion regarding compensation.  PVNA nurses earn much less than nurses at Sacred Heart and Holy Family.  PVNA has become a revolving door for nurses not willing to stay because of the low pay and difficult, and sometimes dangerous, isolated work environments.  While management upped their wage proposal, it does not keep up with the wage increases that Sacred Heart and Holy Family nurses received in their last negotiations, so the wage gap will WIDEN.  This is not sustainable.

Management has indicated that they believe that things are different between an acute care hospital and a home health setting.  Kathleen Thompson read a powerful statement to management, comparing and contrasting the home health RN to that of a hospital bedside RN. She began with “we agree acute care is different”…

Kathleen further went on to say, “In the acute care setting, nurses have total control over their environment; they work in clean rooms with equipment that minimize nurse discomfort and injury and increase efficiencies. They have bedside tables to set up a sterile field for sterile procedures. They have colleagues readily available to lend a hand when a third or fourth hand is needed. They have access to on-site security. Contrast that with the environment the home health nurse works in homes with unpleasant odors, filthy floors, unhealthy air quality, ambient temperatures that are uncomfortably hot or cold, insufficient lighting, no surface area to set up a clean work area, let alone a sterile field, no chair for the nurse to sit on. We often work on the floor or bent over a bed that is too low. We perform procedures that need three hands without any help. At the last session, we were told if patient who has drugs out, we may still need to see them and wear PPE, whereas a nurse in a hospital, if a patient is doing drugs they would not be allowed to be there”.

After this statement, management followed up by expressing that acute care has different revenue and that home health environments aren’t always wonderful; it’s part of a job.

In these negotiations, we intend to make sure that the lack of common-sense safety measures and low pay are not “part of the job”.

GREAT work on a successful petition, VNA RNs! You have proven that we are united and strong. As you can guess, our work is not done. There will be another action to come soon!

Follow WSNA VNA RNs on Facebook and Instagram. The nurses of VNA have a closed group on Facebook, and all nurses are invited to join. Email Jaclyn Smedley to get connected!

Our next days to bargain are Oct 29, and 30, Nov 7, and 8.

Questions? Contact a bargaining team member
Kathleen Thompson, Carolyn Chandler, Rachel Morgan, Amanda Crawford
or WSNA Nurse Representative Jaclyn Smedley, BSN, RN at jsmedley@wsna.org.