We had our first day at the table with the employer. Your bargaining team members Ryan Housden (ED RN) and Jennifer Reynolds (CCU RN) made the following statements to the employer:

“Happy, healthy nurses will increase retention and recruitment, which will lead to a happy healthier community. We want nurses to stay, and we feel that having a better contract, we can say this is a good place to work.” JR

“I feel like retention is a huge asset for the hospital to look at, if we keep the nurses who are committed to work here, we don’t want those people to travel 30 miles away to work somewhere else.” RH

Your bargaining team presented a set of opening language proposals to strengthen existing contract articles. We have reserved our economic proposals for a later session. These opening proposals include stronger protections for meal and rest breaks and improved daily overtime language. We also proposed that all nurses be eligible for step increases on their anniversaries, eliminating the 1664-hour requirement.

Negotiating a new contract requires a lot of time and focus from the bargaining team. Our next negotiation session will be Monday, October 7, 2024, when we expect to receive counter proposals from Management on our opening proposals. If you are interested in attending negotiations as a bargaining support team member, please use the link below or sign up with one of the bargaining team members.

Your Bargaining Team,

Ryan Housden – ED 
Jason Kindle – OPS
Jennifer Reynolds – CCU
Kim Scott – CCU
Kala Winter – Informatics 
Michelle Phillips - OPS

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Stephenie Troftgruben at stroftgruben@wsna.org.