Congratulations to all of us! We have made remarkable strides in staffing, breaks, and wages in this contract. Ratification vote will be on Thursday, June 29 in the Baker Conference Room (a real room *inside* the Hospital!) from 0600-2100. Vote count immediately after, and nurses in good standing are welcome to participate or observe. You must be a member in good standing to vote. Bargaining team members, your nurse rep, and attorney-negotiator will be present.

Here are highlights of the Tentative Agreement. Full red-lined (marked-up) copies of the changes between the old and newly negotiated contract will be available at ratification. 

• Wage Scale (Art. 8) – The new wage scale mirrors TG’s. Effective the first full pay period (“FFPP”) after ratification (that is, starting Sunday, July 2), the base wage will now be $40.80 and Step 25 and higher will be at $78.75 – a 24.13% increase over the current Step 25 rate. These wages were accomplished by increasing the highest current wage rate and then compressing the scale to 25 steps from 33. This has the effect of substantially increasing the wage rates at all steps, even for those over Step 25. As of ratification, Step 25 will be the highest step on the wage scale. In April ’24, raise of 4.5%; April ’25, raise of 3.5%. The new wage scale is attached at the end of this Summary.
  • Ratification Bonus. $3,500 pro-rated (for purposes of this bonus, .9 FTE = 1.0, per diems = .3) for nurses who are employed in the unit as of ratification and who are employed in the unit at the time of payout (which is the payday for the second full pay period following ratification – 8/3)
• Premiums and Differentials. (Art 9)
  • NEW to Rest Between Shifts – Effective 3/31/24, RBS premium of 1.5x will apply to the entire subsequent shift with different rest requirement shift lengths applying (this is the same as TG):

• NEW Float pay $5/hr when floated out of your clinical grouping. Applies when sent to 1 Dally if you’re not caring for your usual acuity level of patient.
• NEW Safe Staffing premium $5/hr if a nurse has a pt assignment in excess of the staffing standard in the state-submitted staffing plan for two continuous hours, the nurse receives the premium for all hours worked.
  • Charge Nurse: if the employer decides the charge needs to take a pt assignment or an additional charge assignment, the employer can either remove the charge assignment or the charge is eligible for the premium for time worked with a pt or second charge assignment for 2 continuous hours
  • Premium will not be paid as a result of unscheduled absences (WA-Sick and planned FLMA excepted).
• NEW to the contract/Improved in general – Student Loan Repayment – up to $400/month (up from $333 and not in the contract before) provided the nurse is at least .75 FTE, has been at GSH for at least six months. Tax-free up to $5,250/year (full benefit also includes education reimbursement). Nurses eligible for a max of 5 years. Effective FFPP after the implementation of WorkDay but no later than 8/1/23.
• Shift Diff second shift diff now $3/hour (up from $2.75); noc diff now $5.50/hour (up from $4.50).
• Standby Pay now, all standby hours are paid at $6/hour (up from $4). We pulled the additional $4/hour for all standby hours over 60 – this benefits all nurses on standby.
• Callback Eff. FFPP following 3/31/24, Nurses will receive a minimum guaranteed payment of 3-hour period *each* time a nurse is called back (that is, the 3-hour payments are “stacked”).
• Charge Nurse Pay up to $3.25 (from $2.50).
• Certification Pay up to $1.25 (from $1.00).
• Preceptor Pay Up to $2.00 (from $1.25).
• Weekend Premium Up to $4.25 (from $3.00).
• NEW Stat RNs will receive a differential in alignment with Tier 3 of the Float Pool rate - $12/hour
• Staffing. No implemented team nursing or any other change without going through the Staffing Committee. All units will have a free charge RN and many will have flex nurses as well. These additional and current positions will be applied to the 2024 staffing plans:
  • The Hospital will present any proposed changes to any staffing care model (i.e. team nursing/an integrated care model) to the HSC in accordance with the staffing law, RCW 70.41.420.
  • Currently:
    • Med/Onc will continue to maintain a flex RN.
    • Post Surgical/Ortho-Surg will continue to maintain a flex RN
    • Obs will continue to maintain a free charge nurse.
    • PCU will continue to maintain a flex RN.
  • No later than 6 months after ratification (if ratified 6/29, then by 12/29/23):
    • Obs will get a flex nurse.
    • Inpt Rehab will get a flex nurse
    • NICU will get a free charge nurse who will also be the receiver and can assist with providing meals & breaks.
    • START will get a free charge nurse who will also provide meals & breaks.
• Break Nurses
  • Eff. 5/1/24, the break buddy system will not be the primary method of providing break relief and will only be used as a last resource. Specifically, the break buddy system will be a last resource to ensure meals and breaks are provided on a unit, as defined in the unit’s meal and break plan. 
  • Unit management with input by the bargaining unit staffing committee representative will create a meal and break process for their unit.
  • Break relief nurses shall have similar skills, scope, and competencies and shall not have a patient assignment.
  • Units who select to use flex RNs for meal and break coverage may continue to do so as part of their unit meal and break plan.
  • Plan(s) shall be submitted to the hospital staffing committee no later than April 1, 2024 and shall be reviewed during the April 2024 staffing committee meeting for its approval.
  • Upon approval by the staffing committee, or effective May 1, 2024, leaders shall implement the meal and break plan(s).
  • If a unit misses more than 20% of breaks during a quarter, or is utilizing the buddy system or flex nurses more than 20% of the time, the HSC will review to determine if there are systemic issues on the unit leading to these problems. HSC can make recommendations to the unit on how to meet the plan.
• NEW Float order
• Tiered Float Pool increased amounts per tier – Tier 1 $6/hour (was $2), Tier 2 $8/hour (was $3), Tier 3 $12/hour (was $5).
• Bargaining Team Pay – (MOU) The 10 bargaining team members will receive $5,000 each. In addition, nurses are able to donate PTO to the bargaining team to offset the PTO/loss of pay that bargaining team members experienced during negotiations.

For WSNA membership application:  https://www.wsna.org/membership/application 

In solidarity, your bargaining team:
Mindy Thornton, Jared Richardson, Aaron Bradley, Raeli Korzeniecki, Dawn Morrell, Anne Landen, Ashley Eubanks, Atalia Lapkin, Erin Butler, and Paul Grantham

Questions/Issues, contact Janet Stewart, WSNA Nurse Representative jstewart@wsna.org.