We met for our first contract bargaining session Thursday, Feb. 6, and can state a big win for nurses. Hundreds of you signed the petition to allow us access to the new WA PFML benefits. Overlake agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding allowing Overlake RNs to be eligible for this benefit beginning Feb. 17, 2020. This means that the Overlake RNs will now have access to the same new state benefits that every other Overlake employee has. If you apply for this benefit after Feb. 17, 2020, and are denied, please contact WSNA Nurse Rep Sydne James at sjames@wsna.org.

We exchanged the bulk of our proposals. For us nurses, our focus is on staffing and economic benefits. For the hospital, they have given us a lot of proposals that require a lot of consideration for us to better understand the implications of these.

Our next bargaining date is Feb. 24. If you are not on the WSNA private FB group for Overlake RNs, you are missing out on the quickest way to be updated. Email WSNA organizer Zach Seikel to get invited, zseikel@wsna.org. Include your email that you use to log in to FB. You can always find updated information here.

Questions? Contact any of us, your WSNA 2020 contract bargaining team,

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