Seattle / King County Public Health - Supervisors

We met for our eighth negotiation session on January 13, 2020.

We were able to come to tentative agreements on several articles. We have identified our priorities for the next negotiation session, which will be on February 10, 2020. We expect to have robust discussions as we work through some of the more contentious issues that will be addressed. Wages are part of those discussions and that includes any cost of living increases for 2020.

In solidarity from your negotiating team,
Sean Dumas and Lois Schipper

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Hanna Welander at hwelander@wsna.org.

We met for our sixth negotiation session on Dec. 20, 2019.

We tentatively agreed to a couple of articles. King County HRD provided information to the team about the complexity of the Washington Paid Family Leave program and how it intersects with county leave benefits. The county will be sending out information to all of you about the new leave benefit.

We continued to discuss our interests in continuing education. We are seeking improvements in the language and fending off take-aways.

Jan. 7, 2020 is our next session.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Hanna Welander at hwelander@wsna.org or 206-575-7979, Ext. 3035.

We, your bargaining team met on Dec.12 for our 5^th session with the County. We are making very slow progress due to the County’s proposal coming in small bits and pieces. We still do not have the entire proposal from the County and at each session, the County has made changes to their previous proposals. Currently, the County is not willing to provide retro pay despite these delays. These contract negotiations are unusual in that the County is proposing a complete rewrite of the contract and to date, we have received nearly 100 pages of contract language. Some of these changes are positive ones and some are takeaways. We continue to try to evaluate and work through proposals where we can. We do have a few tentative agreements on some language. We are back at the table on Dec. 20, 2019.

Your negotiation team – Sean Dumas – Local Unit Chair, Lois Schipper – Vice Chair, Louise Peterson

Questions? Contact one of your local unit officers or WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN at sfrey@wsna.org or 206.575.7979 ext. 3039.

We, your negotiation team, met with management on Nov. 20 for our third bargaining session. In our last update, we shared that management is proposing to rewrite the contract from top to bottom. On Tuesday, we received more of the County’s proposals. We also received some changes to proposals that were previously offered and are still waiting on more proposals from the County. As you can imagine, due to the number of the County’s proposed changes, this will not be a quick negotiation. While there are some improvements, there are also takeaways. As we are able to start evaluating the proposals in more depth, we will be providing more detailed updates. We are scheduled to meet again next Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019.

Updates are always available here on your WSNA local unit website. However, email is the best way to get prompt, up-to-date information on the latest news you need to know about! Please contact your WSNA Nurse Rep or the WSNA Membership dept. if you are not receiving emails.

Your negotiation team – Sean Dumas – Local Unit Chair, Lois Schipper – Vice Chair, Louise Peterson

Questions? Contact one of your local unit officers or WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN at sfrey@wsna.org or 206.575.7979 ext. 3039.

We, your negotiation team met for the second time with management on Thursday, Nov. 7. The majority of the session was spent receiving management’s proposal which, by their own admission, is intended to renegotiate the contract from top to bottom with changes in just about every section. The County did not have a full proposal ready and plan to give us the remainder during our next session on Nov. 19. It appears we still are due about 1/3 – 1/2 of their proposal. The County did give us their wage proposal which is 1.5% / 2% / 2% in years 1, 2 and 3. On the Nov. 19 our team will start evaluating some of the proposals and will hopefully receive the remainder of the County’s proposal.

Updates are always available on this page. However, email is the best way to get prompt, up-to-date information on the latest news you need to know about! Please contact your WSNA Nurse Rep or the WSNA Membership dept. if you are not receiving emails.

Your negotiation team – Sean Dumas – Local Unit Chair, Lois Schipper – Vice Chair, Louise Peterson

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN at sfrey@wsna.org or 206.575.7979 ext. 3039.

We, your negotiation team, met with management for our first negotiation session on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. We presented a comprehensive proposal and we did have some conversations around some of the proposals. We are still evaluating proposals for some issues. Management was not ready to respond on Nov. 1, nor did they present their proposal. We anticipate receiving their proposal at our next session on Nov. 7. At that time, we will provide more details, so be sure to be watching for updates as we continue on with this process.

This update is being sent both by email and postcard. If you do not receive the email, please make sure you have newsletter@wsna.org “whitelisted” in your email account. Refer to your email provider for instructions on how to do that as instructions vary with different providers. If you still do not receive email from us, please contact your nurse rep or the WSNA Membership department to insure you have not inadvertently opted out of email from WSNA. Updates are always available here on your local unit webpage. However, email is the best way to get prompt, up-to-date information on the latest news you need to know about!

Your negotiation team – Sean Dumas – Local Unit Chair, Lois Schipper – Vice Chair, Louise Peterson

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN at sfrey@wsna.org or 206.575.7979 ext. 3039.

The current contract between WSNA and your local unit expires December 31, 2019. This survey is our first step in our preparation for contract negotiations. Your input is critical to determining our priorities as we head to the bargaining table. Unfortunately, we had a low response rate to the first request for survey responses.

It is vital that we know your issues and concerns prior to the start of the negotiations. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to complete this survey now.

Please provide us with your current contact information. WSNA, your officers and your negotiating team members do not share this information with anyone. It is only collected so that we may contact you if we have questions and so we may share important information with you regarding current negotiations and issues. There is also a place on the survey to indicate if you are interested in serving on the negotiation team. Officers will be reaching out to those individuals with further information.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey at sfrey@wsna.org or 206-575-7979, ext. 3039.

The current contract between WSNA and your local unit expires December 31, 2019. This survey is our first step in our preparation for contract negotiations. Your input is critical to determining our priorities as we head to the bargaining table. It is vital that we know your issues and concerns prior to the start of the negotiations. As you can see, there are a number of opportunities for you to provide text so we can learn about issues that are unique to your area.

Take a moment to complete this survey now. The power of representation comes from the willingness of registered nurses to unite; our strength is in unity! Remember for WSNA to be an effective, strong, influential voice for you at the negotiation table, we need your membership and involvement.

Please provide us with your current contact information. WSNA, your officers and your negotiating team members do not share this information with anyone. It is only collected so that we may contact you if we have questions and so we may share important information with you regarding current negotiations and issues.

Please complete the survey no later than July 31, 2019 so your team can start preparing. There is also a place on the survey to indicate if you are interested in serving on the negotiation team. Officers will be reaching out to those individuals with further information.

Questions? Contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey at sfrey@wsna.org or 206-575-7979, ext. 3039.

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

Nurse Representatives from WSNA attended the county’s PHN meeting on Thursday, April 4.

During this meeting management rolled out their proposals for restructuring PHN Care Models in Women’s and Infants programs. The details of the proposed changes have not been completely determined, but it is clear that PHN nurses working in these programs will be impacted. Effects may include changes to work processes, including work sites and schedules, as well as layoff.

The County’s current plan includes layoff of up to 15 WSNA PHN nurses, although that number has not been finalized. The county is offering its Voluntary Separation Program to eligible nurses. If eligible nurses receive VSP, the number of layoffs will decrease.

The time line provided at the April 4 meeting included submission of VSP applications from mid-April on, with determination of eligibility In June/July. Layoff notifications are to be sent following VSP determinations.

It is possible that PHN nurses working in other programs, and other WSNA represented RN positions, will receive layoff notifications.

Layoffs would be effective Dec. 31, 2019.

Management has been meeting with PHN nurses this week. Meetings will continue into May. WSNA will be attending the meeting Monday, April 15 at the downtown clinic.

We also plan to meet with management next week for a preliminary discussion of the effects of their proposed changes. We will update you following that meeting.

Questions? Please contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey at sfrey@wsna.org or 206-575-7979 ext. 3039.

In Solidarity,
Sara Frey, WSNA Nurse Representative on behalf of your Local Unit Officers

Please welcome WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey, JD, BSN, RN. Beginning Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, Sara will be taking over all new issues as they arise at Seattle & King County Public Health - Supervisors. I will finish up most of the outstanding matters to their conclusion and assist Sara in the coming months, as needed.

Sara can be reached at sfrey@wsna.org or 206-575-7979, ext. 3039.

It has been a pleasure working with all of the Seattle & King County PH supervisors. I am continuing my work here at WSNA as a nurse representative with a few new assignments. I will miss the Seattle & King County PH supervisors but know you will be in good hands with Sara.

All my best to you,

Ed Zercher, BSN, RN
WSNA Nurse Rep
206-575-7979, ext. 3022
ezercher@wsna.org

By overwhelming majority, the bargaining unit has voted to move the nurse recruiter classification to the supervisor bargaining unit. A copy of the Memorandum of Agreement can be accessed in the contracts and documents section.

For any questions, please contact WSNA Nurse Representative Ed Zercher at ezercher@wsna.org or (206) 575-7979, ext. 3022