Children’s Case Managers finalize contract
On June 18, nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital voted resoundingly to approve a Memorandum of Understanding to finalize contract terms specific to case managers, utilization management nurses, and care managers.
“As a group, we’re super happy and excited,” said Alefiya Deards, who was on the MOU’s bargaining team. “I’m just so happy to be part of such a strong nursing organization.”
Nurses in the Case Management Department voted to join WSNA in July 2025. Nurses in the department were seeing many changes that they didn’t feel were in the best interests of front-line nurses and wanted a voice in these decisions, Deards said.
At the time, the nurses at Children’s had been bargaining since late May in an unusually contentious, round of negotiations that took nine months and 36 bargaining sessions to settle.
When the Children’s contract was ratified Jan. 31, 2026, it included a side letter that set a timeline for bargaining over issues unique to nurses in the Case Management Department, such as compensation, work schedules, remote work, a transition plan for existing benefits and leave accruals, and staffing issues.
The group of nurses won higher sick leave and annual leave accruals, enhanced benefits, overtime, premium pay, and many other benefits contained in the contract. All these nurses were converted from salaried employees to hourly employees on the wage scale in the collective bargaining agreement. In the conversion, case management nurses won three pay raises over 12 months for substantial gains on average.
“I generally feel much more protected and safer in my nursing practice now that we are formally unionized with WSNA,” Deards said.