Your WSNA bargaining team is pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Kindred to implement immediate raises at First Hill! Your team has pushed Kindred to take urgent action to increase wages so that the hospital could both recruit and retain dedicated nurses. This agreement goes a long way towards achieving that goal. Please note your team is about to enter into negotiations with Kindred on a new contract and we expect to win additional wage increases in the new contract.

Under the agreement, the hospital will increase the hiring grid for newly hired nurses by 11% at the base step. Steps above the base step will be increased even more. This will enable the hospital to offer a more attractive starting wage to new nurses. Nurses currently employed at First Hill will receive either a 2% increase or an increase to place you at the hiring step that matches your years of Kindred service. Years of service is calculated from your most recent date of hire with all former Northgate nurses receiving credit for time worked at Northgate. This raise is in addition to the 3% raise that we won in the Spring of this year. As a result, all nurses employed at First Hill since the start of the year will receive at least a 5% increase. Almost half of all current nurses will see increases well above 5%.

Your WSNA bargaining team will continue to fight for fair wages at First Hill. Our patients deserve a stable nursing staff. Nurses who have worked through this very challenging year deserve fair compensation. We will keep working to achieve these goals!

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Michelle Moore at mmoore@wsna.org.