Your team met with management on Thursday, May 23. We continued to discuss many items including economics, successorship and the Staffing Committee.

The Employer continues their original offer of a zero percent wage increase with no other economic concessions and a one-year contract. They continue to state they are in a financial situation that is not improving. Per Lisa Sanford, on May 23, the hospital had twelve (12) days operating money.

We are committed to achieving the very best economic package we can that fairly compensates the Hospital’s nurses. We are exploring the possibility of a two-year contract with a wage “reopener” after the first year, that would allow the Union to reopen the Contract at the second year to bargain for another wage increase.

Regarding successorship, we again proposed language that would help protect nurses in the event that another entity buys WhidbeyHealth.

We reached only one tentative agreement (TA) during this session, regarding Article 2.1, which prohibits the hospital from advising employees on whether to join the Union.

Our next session, which was previously scheduled for May 29, has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts. Please watch for our notice of the next date.

In the meantime, your team will be back in touch with you regarding actions we are planning for the coming weeks. For instance, we will be asking all nurses to wear blue on our negotiation date. We are also ordering car signs and yard signs which will be shared with all that are interested in displaying them in the community. The WSNA Organizer, along with the Negotiation Team members will be reaching out to nurses regarding a few other ideas we have discussed to get the word out to the community in support of nurses, patient care and safety!

Most of this information will be sent to the nurses by email and possibly postcards. If we don’t have your current correct email, please let Nurse Rep Terri Williams know. We may also send text messages, therefore, be sure we have your correct cell number.

PTO donations reminder: We are counting on your help since every negotiation session we attend is unpaid. Our only options are to use our PTO or take No Pay to attend negotiations. Please support your team and donate some PTO. Any amount helps. Per the agreement, one hour is the minimum you can donate. Thanks to those who have already made donations! And, the unit that raises the most PTO hours will get a prize based on donations by unit/number of nurses, so smaller units have a just as good a shot at winning!

Will you be a PTO donation ambassador? If you are interested, contact Gwen Parrick, Local Unit Chair at gwensparrick@hotmail.com.

In Solidarity!

Gwen Parrick rsgsparr@whidbey.com; Jeremy Aaron jaaron575@gmail.com; Laura Black tomnlaura@hotmail.com; Ann Bell anniebell66@gmail.com; Bonita Garcia bonniegarcia@hotmail.com; Dori Painter doripainter@gmail.com; Jessica Shaffer jessibaby1979@hotmail.com; Mary Meek mickeymousefan1308@att.net; Luka MacKay lukamackay@gmail.com; Lucylyn Sinette lucylyn.goense@gmail.com; Sarah-Lyn Clark sclark5186@yahoo.com; Michael Aube mmaubevt@yahoo.com


Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Rep Terri Williams, MS, RN at twilliams@wsna.org.