Your bargaining team met with the mediator again on May 2 and finally received a counterproposal from the Hospital. Although we have not officially made any agreement regarding the Hospital’s latest proposals because they were contained in a package, the Hospital did make major movements on some big issues. The latest proposal from Management incorporated the following from the Union’s previous proposals:

• Increase the weekend bonus to $3.50;
• Nurses can voluntarily use PTO for sick leave;
• A benefits committee to discuss improvements to medical, vision, and dental;
• Per Diems to advance up the pay scale after 1248 hours rather than 1664 hours; and
• Stronger anti-retaliation language for nurses who file ADOs

We also made progress on language to commence our bargaining sessions before the expiration of the contract.

However, the Hospital did not make any new movement on wages. The Hospital’s latest wage proposal is still below comps and eliminates just one of the current ghost steps, compared with five in the Union’s proposal. The Hospital also did not agree that part-time nurses would advance up the pay scale after 1248 hours rather than 1664 hours. Meal and rest breaks also remain a major point of contention.

Your bargaining team will meet again with the mediator on May 27 to respond to the Hospital’s counterproposal and continue pushing to resolve these outstanding issues.

In unity,
Your bargaining team, 
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.