Providence management said to our bargaining team that they don’t agree that damage has been done in the unilateral change they made to Aetna. They shared that “there may have been hiccups” and that “some people have had disruptions” but it seems they feel as they have done nothing wrong to our nurses.

Not only did management express those sentiments, but they also passed proposals to worsen our nurse’s health benefits including-

• Raising the blended average limit on premium increases
  • 9% for HRA/HAS and 10% for Kaiser plans
• Removing their 100% payment of dental premiums and proposing nurses pay ON AVERAGE 50% of their dental premiums
• Removing health incentive funding and raising premiums for those who earn gross 200,000 annually

Our team has spent countless hours gathering information to learn about how we can reach an agreement on this issue. We came to bargaining with a reasonable proposal to solve the issue. Management proposed to make healthcare more expensive for nurses—after the change to Aetna already raised costs. Management wants nurses to be on the same healthcare plan as everyone else at the hospital simply because it would be easier to administer. Instead of bringing our nurse’s benefits down, why not align others with our contract? We have our union for a reason; to bargain better than the poor proposals the Employer offers.

One area the parties are finding agreement on involves expanding our benefit committee. We have seen in other contracts tangible improvements from simply meeting more frequently with the Employer raising issues happening with health insurance. Our benefits committee seats 5 nurses and would ideally meet quarterly to discuss trends of issues happening with health insurance. Our team advocated that one of those meetings should include a benefits fair prior to open enrollment for increased transparency. Management stated that while they used to do in person benefit fairs, that due to personnel capacity it’s not an efficiency of a shared system. We firmly believe in this committee we can find a way to bring more comprehensive information to our members.

Management has also proposed a benefits navigator, who would be Employed by Aetna and could be another resource after nurses have accessed the 24/7 service line. We do not agree on the timing or frequency of when this individual would be available, but it would be an added benefit.

Our team is scheduled to meet with management to bargain for extended hours on Tuesday March 17 and Wednesday March 18. The two biggest ways nurses can help us secure a fair contract with NO takeaways is to do the following-

Be an observer! There are over 2,000 nurses at Sacred Heart and every single one of you should come watch us bargain for our contract. We have NO limit on how many nurses can come observe. Nurses can sign up for half days in the morning or evening or stay all day. We will have evening times for upcoming dates.

We are STRONGER TOGETHER and our contracts are made by all of us standing side by side. Sign up and show up! Check out the photos below from our day 13 team and from St. Joe’s Bellingham contract who had over 100 nurses support their contract bargaining session.

Fill out your love letter and get it to our team! Have you seen this on your unit and in your breakrooms?

Our team has been rounding in the hospital DAILY over the last two weeks and are asking every one of our nurses to sign their letter. Let’s remind ourselves why we love working here but show management what breaks our heart. Help us get as many as we can so we can present them to management and show them every nurse is listening. Every nurse sees their bad proposals. Every nurse knows they deserve a fair contract with no takeaways.

Drop off your love letter or come sign yours on Tuesday March 10 in the Cafeteria. Look for our blue WSNA banner during the following times

We want to take a moment and say THANK YOU to our units providing support in showing up to observe and feeding our team. Thank you, 7 North, 7 South, and Endoscopy, for the wonderful meals to sustain our team!

Questions? Contact a member of our bargaining team, a local union officer here, or email our WSNA Nurse Rep Alle Machorro amachorro@wsna.org