Officers - Lois Schipper was elected to a Vice Chair position. Congratulations to Lois! Lois is not new to an officer role. She recently rejoined the bargaining unit, volunteered to fill one of the vacant positions and, thus, a ballot was sent out. Several folks have asked about officer positions. It is currently mid-term. Grievance officer and Secretary Treasurer are currently vacant positions. Because it is midterm, you can self-nominate at any time if you would like to serve in one of the open roles and a ballot will be mailed out. If you are interested, please contact WSNA Nurse Rep. Sara Frey, Local Unit Chair Sean Dumas or Local Unit Vice-Chair Lois Schipper.
Negotiations - Several folks have asked about upcoming negotiations. Your contract expires at the end of the year. Some time around the end of June or early July, WSNA will be sending out a survey to find out what is working or not working, what improvements you would like to see, etc. We will also seek volunteers at that time to be on the negotiation team. Stay tuned!
Changes to the clinics – WSNA is aware of the recent meeting that was held to announce changes at the clinics. There were several WSNA Nurse Reps in attendance. At this time, we do not have any more specifics than what was discussed at the meeting. Your officers discussed this topic at Conference Committee when we met on April 30, 2019. We hope to have updates for you soon. Our understanding at this time is that changes for the supervisors will be minimal. If you are receiving other information from management, please forward that on to your Nurse Rep.
Conference Committee – Your officers met several months ago to reestablish Conference Committee. Conference Committee is an advisory meeting where supervisors and management can discuss issues or other topics of mutual interest. The past meeting we discussed a charter. There was also discussion around a class specification document for jail nurses. We are allowed three members at this meeting. While we have representation from the jail, we would very much like to have that third member from one of the clinics so those interests are represented. If you are from a clinic and would like to attend as a representative, please contact Lois, Sean or our nurse rep. Our next meeting is July 16 at 1 pm. The meeting is 2 hours and WSNA attendees generally meet about 30 minutes ahead of time to discuss agenda items. Here is an overview of topics discussed at the meeting on April 30:
- We received an overview of the planned reorganization of the clinics.
- It is our understanding there will not be any layoffs for supervisors.
- The nature of the work being performed will not change for supervisors
- We conveyed some of the concerns related to the timing in light of changes to WIC. Also, managing groups that are out of office and potentially spread out is a concern. Those particular details are upcoming discussions for work groups.
- Work groups are being established to work out details of how the new groups will function and the implementation. At this time, we were informed that details are not known. As the details related to this restructure continue to unfold, please feel free to reach out to update WSNA and let us know if you have concerns.
- We finalized the Conference Committee charter
- We wrapped up discussions about the jail class spec
- We asked for “staffing” to be a standing agenda item as we would like to monitor vacancies, open shifts, etc. that impact the supervisors' work.
- We received an update related to jail vacation requests, i.e. – number granted, number denied. Only one day was denied out of nearly 100 days requested.
WSNA events – WSNA received feedback that supervisors would like to plan some sort of dinner or event. If you would like to participate in planning such an event, let’s do it! Please let us know that you are interested in helping coordinate a meaningful event.
Nurse Reps – over the past few months, WSNA Nurse Reps have all been transitioning to new facility assignments. Sara Frey is your new nurse rep. Sara has been with WSNA for 10 years. She will continue to work with Ed Zercher, when needed, as she becomes familiar with the County and the various units/positions.
Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey at sfrey@wsna.o