Dear WSNA nurses,

You may have heard that some of our coworkers (the “professional bargaining unit”) are going through an organizing drive with the Machinists union. This is great news for them and we support them in that effort. However, there are also some inaccurate statements and rumors circulating – particularly about WSNA’s involvement in this process – and, as always, we want to make sure you’re getting the correct information.   

• WSNA firmly believes that all workers should be in a union – after our contract fight that only ended after a strike vote, WSNA RNs are acutely aware of why all MultiCare employees should be in a union.
• We firmly believe that the professional unit should be in a union, and we support the professionals in their campaign to join the Machinists.
• The National Labor Relations Board – the federal agency that will oversee any election – is obligated to follow what’s called “the Health Care Rule.” The Rule states that acute care hospital employees are sorted into 8 specific bargaining units unless there are extraordinary circumstances. There is an RN bargaining unit – at Good Sam, this is our WSNA bargaining unit – which generally includes all non-supervisory RNs regardless of whether they have an ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, etc. Additionally, there is the “professional unit” which is for employees in job classifications that require a 4-year degrees except for RNs and physicians; this is the unit that the Machinists have petitioned for.
• The Machinists have petitioned to include case managers in the professional unit. The case managers are largely RNs but also include some other licensed employees as well. Under the Health Care Rule, a professional unit that includes RNs is not considered an appropriate unit. Because of the Rule, current law does not permit RNs to become part of the professional unit.
• WSNA requested to participate in this process to protect the existing RN bargaining unit and any current or future RN positions that MultiCare establishes. The WSNA RN unit at Good Sam has existed for decades and, especially after the hard and public fight with MultiCare that we went through this year, we will not intentionally or otherwise waive our right to exclusively represent GSH RNs. We truly wish that these conversations with the Machinists would have occurred before the petition was filed.
• We *are not* saying that WSNA should represent the professional unit, nor are we saying that there shouldn’t be an election for the professional unit. Our involvement in this petition is limited to saying that, according to the Health Care Rule, the RN case managers cannot be in the professional unit, and that GSH RNs are already represented by WSNA. *Regardless of WSNA’s intervention in the process, the Health Care Rule prevents the inclusion of the RN case managers in the professional unit.*
• Consider it this way:  your neighbor wants to build a new fence – that’s fine. However, when your neighbor wants to build a fence that encroaches 6” into your yard, you need to say something about it because the alternative is losing your right to claim that 6” strip for good. In short, if we were to stand by and not intervene, any time GSH added a new RN job classification, two unions could say that they should be representing those RNs. This would divide GSH nurses’ power and only benefit the employer.
• If the NLRB decides that RN case managers cannot be part of the professional unit (even if their case manager coworkers can), the RN case managers are not forced to join WSNA. While those case managers would be welcome, our interest is in making sure that the considerable power of GSH nurses is maintained in one union.
• We encourage anyone interested to attend the virtual NLRB hearing to get the facts on this case. The hearing will be on Friday, Sept. 8, at 9 a.m. You can attend the hearing by using the link button below:

In Solidarity, 
Your Local Unit Officers
Jared Richardson, Raeli Korzeniecki, Mindy Thorton, Aaron Bradley, Ashley Eubank, and Anne Landen

Questions, contact your officers or WSNA Nurse Representative Janet Stewart at jstewart@wsna.org.