Today, August 12, was our first actual day of bargaining after management canceled the first session. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, management had to take a two hour pause in the middle of the agreed upon bargaining day for a hospital board meeting. That coupled with management wanting to meet off site created a hard stop of losing the room at 4:30 pm. Your officers, and Shea, our chief negotiator, made it clear today that finishing this contract needs to be a priority for the hospital and everyone should want it done before expiration.

We want to give a thank you to the observers that came and showed support. It showed management that nurses are behind us. We understand that not everyone can make it to the negotiations but if you are interested in coming, please reach out to one of the officers or your nurse rep. If you can’t come, show your solidarity at the hospital. Last night, WSNA rounded the hospital and passed out stickers and buttons. Wear them to show your support. These stickers and buttons ARE protected concerted activity, if you receive any push back from management on this please reach out immediately.

What did we discuss?

We made our first round of non-economic proposals, including new language to make legislative efforts on behalf of nurses easier, improving Per Diem Language, improving hospital committee transparency and leave language among other topics. 

On the bright side, management did agree to TA (tentative agreement) three of our proposals. We received TAs on (1) Stronger union protections, (2) Guaranteeing monthly rosters, and (3) Improving our arbitration language. We know these may seem small, but they are impactful to our workplace environment. Small wins like these make continued improvements in our working conditions.

If you have questions or want to hear about the next steps, please join us on teams  this Thursday 8/13 at 5:30 PM and after session 2 (which takes Monday the 17th) on Thursday the 20th. Join The Bargaining Breakdown here. 

In Solidarity,
Christen Siedler
Ron Brutton
Clarisa Shook
Sarah O’Connell
Chris Fowler
Kris Browne
Robin Cully
Shea Allen