In this edition of news you can use we’ll cover the following

• Leadership changes at Holy Family
• New WSNA nurse officers
• Staffing Committee and Plan Updates
• Upcoming education (and free lunch!) opportunity
• Grievance updates

You may have seen the recent communication about Holy Family’s CNO moving to assume that role at Sacred Heart. Our local union has been able to work collaboratively with the CNO and a previous HR associate over the years to solve problems and settle contract violations including reductions of disciplines where appropriate.

We are now working with a new HR associate and a new director of nursing services you may or may not have met yet. While it’s early, we have some reservations about recent behaviors and will be monitoring our labor management relations very closely.

Our union recently called a meeting regarding changes being made to the charge nurse work in FMC. Article 10.3.1 authorizes either party to call a meeting and follows a specific process. We’ve used this in the past when PACU changed their call guidelines. In their response, HR on behalf of the Employer stated the meeting we called was “unnecessary” as they were acting within their management rights. We reminded them that the opening line of that article states “The following is intended to provide for increased RN input into staffing decisions affecting registered nurses.”. We are sad to see this Employer exhibit what feels like unilateral and exclusionary behaviors, and we will uphold our proud duty to create spaces for nurse’s voice to be heard.

We have demanded the Employer set the meeting and give our nurses an opportunity to provide input as they are directly impacted by management’s decisions.

Meet Newly Appointed WSNA Officers

In case you’re not familiar with the Hospital Staffing Committee or how it operates, we did a deep dive in November 2024. You can find it here on our homepage.

Since our last local union meeting, we met for staffing committee. Management has stated that our members haven’t provided questions for the Employer to answer and lack understanding for why we have not voted to approve any plans regardless of them being a draft status.

In committee, we reviewed ADOs submitted and engaged in comprehensive discussion around the family maternity plans and infusion plans. Plans presented did not appear to be in the correct format and the metrics needed to be modified for how volume was measured. Briefly, we reviewed our position that once the minimum number of nurses is set, it needs to always be maintained. If a floor requires 7 registered nurses and one clocks out for lunch, our union’s position is that the Employer provides a break nurse so that the floor always has 7 nurses. The Employer’s response was that if that was our position, they would like to reduce the minimum numbers for floors.

WSNA has not ever and will never support the “break buddy” system.

Many nurses don’t think this is possible, but we believe it’s a culture shift. Nurses shouldn’t feel safe, "just watching” 3-5 more patients for any length of time and hoping something bad doesn’t happen. We encourage any nurse not being provided full uninterrupted break relief, to file an ADO. Our union has submitted a comprehensive request for information to the Employer to help us navigate the staffing plans and will have a committee update at our next local union meeting. Details below!

Union Education and Free Lunch

Join us for tamales and education about our union! On Wednesday September 17, 2025, from 11a-1p at the Shadle Library our co-chair Emily Troyer is hosting a hybrid opportunity to understand who our union is and what we can all do to make it stronger. RSVP here so we can have a headcount for lunch from Tamale Box!

Grievance Updates

Our union currently has two grievances being processed that affect all our nurses.

• One regarding potential inappropriate use of mandatory low census and failure of the Employer to seek volunteers first.
• The second relates to certification premium not being paid back to the date the nurse was certified.

If you think you are affected by either of those issues, please contact your nurse representative.

Union Meeting Thursday, September 18 via Teams 8-9p

Join us for our MONTHLY local union meetings! Our officer team has decided to have regular, monthly union meetings. These will be virtual unless noted otherwise and will be on the third Thursday of each month from 8-9p. Nurses will receive a link with the email the day prior, and the agenda will be structured but light with room for discussion!

Questions? Contact your WSNA Nurse Representative Alle Machorro at amachorro@wsna.org.