We met with the employer for our 5th negotiation session on Dec. 1. The employer continues to present proposals to reduce rest between shift pay, reduce call back pay, and make it easier to interrupt our meals and breaks without penalty to the employer. We cannot accept these degradations to our working conditions and continue to fight off these and other proposals that we know will negatively affect nurses. We continue to stress the need for Evergreen to invest in nursing, so we have the support we need to care for our patients.

We presented counter proposals that will give nurses more flexibility in available positions and help with recruiting new nurses and retaining our existing staff. We continue to fight for salary increases that we believe will make us more competitive to attract and retain nurses but have not yet received a response to our latest proposal in the area of compensation.

We’ve had productive negotiations in regard to staffing and this resulted in a much-improved staffing plan and commitment from the hospital to increase house wide staffing by 56 FTEs and continue to push recruitment and retention of nurses to ensure fulfillment of this commitment.

Our next negotiation session is Dec. 8.

In unity,

Your bargaining team:

Alicia O’Neal – Hospice Center
Beth Volk – 7 Silver OSN
Holly Baker – ED – Local Unit Treasurer
Jamie Amick – PACU
Karen Lasota – Home Hospice
Lexi Overa – ED
Sandy Gott – FMC – Grievance Officer
Theresa Blazer – FMC – Local Unit Chair