We will have a more robust update for you tomorrow, but today we focused on non-economic issues, including the employer’s responses to our proposals on workplace violence protections and technology. We were disappointed that the hospital leadership did not include all of the protections and care provisions we asked for when our nurses are assaulted at work.

• Protective Contract Language

At our core, we do not believe that you should have to pay for your own assault. We are fighting hard for thoughtful and dignified language in our contract and paid time off to heal when you experience violence at work.

• Preamble 

We also believe that now is the time to commit to ensure that our workplace is fair and inclusive. Our team asked the hospital to live up to what it says are its core values, including anti-racism and equity, by adopting stronger preamble language. These are the first words of our contract.  The hospital’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion should be strong and clear.

• Economics & More

We updated you yesterday about the sweeping economic proposal that we made to improve our wages, sick leave accruals, and other terms that – if adopted – would make great strides in allowing nurses to live where they work. In the hospital’s communication that was sent to your work email today, it claims that the WSNA nurses agree that the hospital will “need significant time to analyze the (economic) proposals” and implied that our team is not moving forward on agreed-upon work on the non-economic articles. This is not entirely true. We acknowledge that the hospital will need to carefully consider the Union’s ambitious economic proposal, but we expect them to engage with those proposals this week, when our team has dedicated three full days to fight for you. The hospital’s team has expressed a preference to complete all non-economic articles before tackling economic ones, but we fundamentally disagree with this approach. We are working diligently on the entire contract and have been working tirelessly to respond to the employer’s non-economic counterproposals. That work has been made more difficult because the employer has failed to provide requested information central to many open articles.

Did you miss the Economic Proposal Presentation?

If you’re interested in the ECONOMIC PROPOSAL PRESENTATION we made at the table yesterday, click here.

We understand the importance of a comprehensive contract, and we are committed to completing the entire agreement by August 31 (contract expiration). After today, we have three more dates to meet on the calendar before contract expiration. Our question to the hospital - if not now on economics, then when?

Do not hesitate to contact any of our officers if you have questions. All of our contacts are on our WSNA website. https://www.wsna.org/union/seattle-childrens-hospital. Also, utilizing our Instagram @sch_wsna offers quick updates and opportunities for DMs.

In solidarity,

Your Bargaining Team

Annika Hoogestraat, Kara Yates, Lindsey Kirsch, Sam Forte, Katie Podobnik, Therese Hill, Kelsey Gellner, AJ Nagal, Emma Gordon, Sarah Munro, Cody Ian, Lauren Lustyk, Regan Halom, Jon McAferty, Anna Marie Fountain and Bree Casas

Feel free to reach out to your WSNA Nurse Rep Linda Burbank at lburbank@wsna.org if needed