We met on Thursday, March 5, for our second contract bargaining session.

We worked all day trying to come to agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the COVID-19 crisis. While Overlake agreed to affirm their recent policy that nurses who are placed on quarantine status due to work-related exposure shall be placed on paid administrative leave (rather than be forced to use their accrued EIB), we were unable to finalize the MOU, in large part because the Employer refuses to commit to following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the King County Public Health Department.

Aside from this bargaining news, we want to update nurses on the current status of mandatory overtime. Because Washington is now in a declared state of emergency, the state-mandated rules that prohibit mandatory overtime have been temporarily suspended. This means that nurses may not refuse mandatory overtime. If you have questions about this, please contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sydne James, sjames@wsna.org.

In solidarity,
Chris Birchem, East 3; Gemma Aranda, PACU; Brooke Dodd, South 4; Janet Moore-Lane, IPS; Pauline Whitney-Hille, IPS; Kathryn Geren, PACU; Cherise Horn, South 4; Sharon Sim, South 4; Magdalyn Chu, Emergency; Brenda Elliott, L&D; Jennifer Carney, South 3; Jesse Haung-Refuerzo, West 4