We met jointly with the supervisors and the County on June 26 for our 10^th session. It became crucial to clear the air about the long pattern of waiting on responses to proposals and information requests. We have been very diligent and intentional, and we expect to see the same from the County. After 5 long months of this, it feels like a lack of respect. This does NOT help the effectiveness of bargaining a strong, fair contract for the staff nurses. We heard from the County they are very serious about bargaining with us and understand what we expressed.

In the renewed spirit of moving forward, we were able to have productive discussions about our outstanding proposals:

• The right to grieve matters of discrimination, just like the County has agreed to in other CBAs. We should be able to grieve claims of discrimination just like any other term of our contract.
• An increase to the bilingual premium that values all eligible nurses in a fair manner.
• Paid Family Medical Leave provisions allowing nurses to use their own accrued leave to top off their PFML benefits.
• Advanced degree premium.
• Continuing reduced parking rates at KCCF.

We shared your testimonies and invited the County to join us in reading dozens of them together, aloud! Your stories gave us the assurance we are on the right track and could feel the nurses in the room with us.

We provided another in-depth presentation of research that supports the interests of our longevity proposal, made in February:

• Did you know that over half of the nurses in our bargaining unit have been at the County for 5 years or less?
• We were able to show the many ways that the current compensation scale and model falls short, leading to a lack of retention in the early years, falling VERY far behind market at the midrange and stagnation at the later years.
• The current longevity premiums are not a substitute for a true wage step system with annual increases each year of a nurse’s career. During the time that nurses are preparing for retirement, they continuously provide valuable experience to clients and support peers in their development – that experience needs to be recognized!

Though we did not get an economic proposal from the County today, we were able to further emphasize how important the longevity issue is for the staff nurses. We made it clear a proposal from the County is the expectation. We are bargaining, after all! We are cautiously optimistic that the County really ‘got it’ for the first time today. The research and your strong testimonies helped to make that happen. Come on King County…. don’t let us down!

It is time to take our fight for a strong fair contract to the next level! 

We are scheduled to meet with King County Council member Mosqueda next week. This is a follow-up to the address we made at the Board of Health in May. Answer our calls to action in support of our shared priorities. We return to the bargaining table on July 8:

1. Sign the solidarity petition and encourage ALL your WSNA coworkers to do the same https://forms.office.com/r/kZ8GykEZKZ
2. Wear your WSNA swag any day. Take a pic and send us a selfie or with a group of your peers. It’s your right to wear your union insignia with pride at work 😊
3. Follow us on social media https://www.instagram.com/phskc_staffnurses/

Contact any team member with questions:

In solidarity, your negotiations team:
Elena Schensted, CHS at Columbia City PH clinic
Stephen Lee, Jail Health at MRJC
Evie Devera, CHS at Downtown PH clinic
Tami Nesler, Jail Health at MRJC 
Carolyn Clark, Jail Health at KCCF 
Kiesha Garcia-Stubbs, CHS at Downtown PH clinic

Tara Barnes, WSNA Nurse Representative tbarnes@wsna.org