We have a date set to meet again with Management! We are scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23 starting at 8:30 a.m. We have listed below most of the items we have a Tentative Agreement on over the course of our negotiations. Stay tuned for an update after our meeting on the 23^rd.

In Solidarity!

Gwen Parrick; Jeremy Aaron; Laura Black; Ann Bell; Bonita Garcia; Dori Painter; Jessica Shaffer; Mary Meek; Luka MacKay; Lucylyn Sinette; Sarah-Lyn Clark; Michael Aube and Terri Williams, WSNA Nurse Rep

Summary of Significant Gains Made So Far
TAs

2.1 Membership: The Employer will not advise employees regarding union membership and will refer any questions in this regard to the union. The Employer may inform employees of their rights regarding whether or not to pay dues or fees to the union, but will remain neutral.

4.3.1 Orientation: New language guarantees WSNA the right to orientation, to take place at the start of the Hospital’s clinical orientation, and obligates the employer to provide WSNA with contact information for newly hired nurses prior to this orientation.

4.8 Public Information Requests: The Hospital promises to notify WSNA if any Public Records Act requests are ever made for nurses’ contact information.

6.2 Notice of Termination: Nurses are now guaranteed 21 days, rather than 14, before being laid off.

7.16 Open Shifts: New language requires the Hospital to offer open shifts to regular full-time and part-time nurses before offering them to per diem nurses, except that the Employer may schedule per diem nurses for up to two shifts per schedule.

8.8 Preceptor: Nurses will receive preceptor pay for supervising students who do not have a supervisor “immediately available” (not just somewhere “on-site”). New language also clarifies the difference between mere “orientation” and “precepting.” Orientation will now typically be limited to: “a summary of documentation and charting expectations, layout of the unit, location of resources, summary of shift responsibilities, location of equipment, an explanation of the nurse-patient call system”

11.2 Low Census: New language ensures that when a nurse requests to be paid PTO for low census, those hours will still count toward the 48 hour cap on low census. New language also clarifies that when nurses are given the option of floating to another unit in lieu of being low censused, they will not be expected to take a full assignment. The contract provisions regarding low census have also been reorganized and consolidated so they are easier for nurses to find and understand.

Open Items Where Gains Have Been Made

12.6 Education Time: The Hospital has agreed that the 24 hours of allowed education time will not include time spent on education required for a nurse to work on his/her unit, and also that the $200 allowed per year for educational expenses can be used for the costs of certifications. The parties still disagree on whether access to the $200 should be contingent on whether the Employer thinks it will “jeopardize budgetary constraints.”

13.11 Safety & Health: The parties are close to reaching agreement on new safety and health language, including commitments to allowing WSNA to appoint up to three RNs to the Hospital’s Safety Committee, and providing the Committee with summaries of Safety Intelligence Network and Violent Act reports, as well as instituting a violence prevention plan and posting signs in prominent locations. WSNA is also asking that the Hospital also agree that the Safety Committee can provide nurses unable to work because of an incident of workplace violence with paid time off separate from accrued PTO.

19.1.1 Staffing: The Hospital has agreed to the same language adopted at St. Joes, requiring the Hospital to strive to maintain staffing that enables nurses to receive all their breaks, to use accrued PTO, and to care for no more patients than anticipated by staffing and safety guidelines.

19.1.2 Nurse Staffing Committee: The Hospital agreed to language allowing WSNA to appoint nurses to the Nurse Staffing Committee and to designate up to three alternates, and also that the WSNA Local Unit Chair will develop meeting agendas. However, the Hospital has refused to language that would obligate the CEO to attend at least one staffing committee per year.

20.4 Successorship: The Hospital has agreed to provide WSNA with 180 days’ notice of an impending sale (or at least 90 if the contemplated closing date is sooner) as well as the identity of the purchaser and anticipated closing date, and also to notify the purchaser of the existence of the CBA.