Thank you to all of the nurses who were able to attend the Unity Meeting on Monday, May 6! It was great to see you all.

With short notice, the Employer has cancelled our next (eighth) negotiations session, which was to take place on Tuesday, May 14. Our next scheduled session is Thursday, May 23.

The information below was shared with all who were able to drop by last week . If you have any questions, please contact one of your Negotiation Team members or Terri Williams, MS, RN; WSNA Nurse Rep.

Contract negotiations update

Economics:

• Whidbey Health is offering a ZERO PERCENT wage increase with no other economic concessions, and a one-year contract.
• The Hospital is in a dire financial situation. It is hemorrhaging money and something has to change if the Hospital is going to stay open.
• We understand that the nurses did not get them into this mess – they did that all on their own. Nonetheless, it’s simply not going to be realistic to achieve an economic package on par with what we’ve won in past years.
• While we recognize that the Hospital is in a bad financial situation, we also know that the nurses are the backbone of this Hospital and that if there’s going to be a turnaround, the nurses need to be on board.
• We are committed to achieving the very best economic package we can that fairly compensates the Hospital’s nurses.

Successorship:

• A key issue we are trying to achieve is language that protects Whidbey’s nurses if the Hospital is ever sold or acquired by another entity.
• We have proposed language that would ensure the terms of your contract would not change if that were to occur.
• The Hospital insists it has no plans to sell, but has refused to agree to this proposal.

We have made some modest improvements to other language items, including language that would:

• Improve low census by providing that hours taken as paid PTO will count toward the 48-hour cap, as well as simplifying the low census language to make it easier to understand
• Require the Hospital to offer open shifts to FTE nurses before per diems
• Differentiate mere orientation from precepting duties that must be paid, and expand the entitlement to preceptor pay for precepting students
• Ensure WSNA is able to meet with new nurses in orientation

We have several other language proposals that the Hospital has not agreed to, including language that would:

• Strengthen the commitments around breaks and staffing
• Ensure that Whidbey’s nurses have a stronger voice on the staffing committee
• Protect the privacy of nurses’ information if it is subject to a Public Records Act request
• Prohibit the Hospital from advising employees on whether to join the Union
• Expand the circumstances when education time can be used

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.