The transmittal process required by County code continues. To recap:

• the WSNA staff nurses who are union members ratified (accepted by a yes vote) by a large majority on June 4.
• the routine proofing and formatting occurred, and the contract was submitted to the King County Council for their review on July 14.
• an implementation memorandum to specify the agreement about retroactivity of the general wage increase back to January 1, 2026, for current (and former employees who were still employed as of June 2026) was committed to writing.
• the sign around by your negotiation team was initiated on August 11 after further proofing, corrections, formatting. 
• it is anticipated that we will gain a hearing date before the King County Council for their passage. We will send an update to the nurses when that date is known.
• the contract is transmitted directly for signature to Executive Zahilay and then 10 days later the contract will become effective.
• In the first full pay period following the effective date, the retroactive general wage increase will be generated for payment and all new terms and provisions will be implemented.

Please note, the increased bilingual premium and the new advanced degree premium are new terms in the contract. Therefore, the new premiums will not be paid retroactively. Only the general wage increase was negotiated and agreed to by the parties for retroactive payment. We cannot go back and renegotiate what was already agreed to by the parties and ratified by vote of the WSNA members on June 4. This is due to the fact that both the County and WSNA are contractually bound to the terms of what we have negotiated.

Questions about this email? Contact a local unit officer or Nurse Representative Tara Barnes tbarnes@wsna.org